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CONTENTS. 



I. The Return .... 
II. Mrs. Todd .... 

III. The Schoolhouse . 

IV. At the Schoolhouse Window 
V. Captain Littlepage 

VI. The Waiting Place . 
VII. The Outer Island 
VIII. Green Island 

IX. William 

X. Where Pennyroyal grew 
XI. The Old Singers . 
XII. A Strange Sail . 

XIII. Poor Joanna .... 

XIV. The Hermitage . 

XV. On Shell-heap Island . 
XVI. The Great Expedition 
XVII. A Country Road . 
XVIII. The Bowden Reunion 
XIX. The Feast's End . 
XX. Along Shore 
XXI. The Backward View . 



PAOB 

1 

3 

11 
15 
20 
31 

42 
48 
66 

72 
80 



115 
127 
134 
144 
li56 
175 
184 
207 



THE COUNTRY OF THE 
POINTED FIRS. 



I. 

THE RETUKN. 



There was something about the coast 
town of Dunnet which made it seem more 
attractive than other maritime villages of 
eastern Maine. Perhaps it was the simple 
fact of acquaintance with that neighbor- 
hood which made it so attaching, and gave 
such interest to the rocky shore and dark 
woods, and the few houses which seemed to 
be securely wedged and tree-nailed in among 
the ledges by the Landing. These houses 
made the most of their seaward view, and 
there was a gayety and determined flower- 
iness in their bits of garden ground; the 
small-paned high windows in the peaks of 
their steep gables were like knowing eyes 
that watched the harbor and the far sea-line 
beyond, or looked northward all along the 



2 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

shore and its background of spruces and 
balsam firs. When one really knows a vil- 
lage like this and its surroundings, it is like 
becoming acquainted with a single person. 
The process of falling in love at first sight 
is as final as it is swift in such a case, but 
the growth of true friendship may be a life- 
long affair. 

After a first brief visit made two or three 
summers before in the course of a yachting 
cruise, a lover of Dunnet Landing returned 
to find the unchanged shores of the pointed 
firs, the same quaintness of the village with 
its elaborate conventionalities ; all that mix- 
ture of remoteness, and childish certainty of 
being the centre of civilization of which her 
affectionate dreams had told. One even- 
ing in June, a single passenger landed upon 
the steamboat wharf. The tide was high, 
there was a fine crowd of spectators, and 
the younger portion of the company followed 
her with subdued excitement up the narrow 
street of the salt-aired, white-clapboarded 
little town. 



II. 

MES. TODD. 

Later, there was only one fault to find 
with this choice of a summer lodging-place, 
and that was its complete lack of seclusion. 
At first the tiny house of Mrs. Almira Todd, 
which stood with its end to the street, ap- 
peared to be retired and sheltered enough 
from the busy world, behind its bushy bit 
of a green garden, in which all the bloom- 
ing things, two or three gay hollyhocks 
and some London-pride, were pushed back 
against the gray-shingled wall. It was 
a queer little garden and puzzling to a 
stranger, the few flowers being put at a dis- 
advantage by so much greenery ; but the 
discovery was soon made that Mrs. Todd 
was an ardent lover of herbs, both wild and 
tame, and the sea-breezes blew into the 
low end-window of the house laden with not 
only sweet-brier and sweet-mary, but balm 
and sage and borage and mint, wormwood 



4 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

and southernwood. If Mrs. Todd had oc- 
casion to step into the far corner of her 
herb plot, she trod heavily upon thyme, and 
made its fragrant presence known with all 
the rest. Being a very large person, her 
full skirts brushed and bent almost every 
slender stalk that her feet missed. You 
could always tell when she was stepping 
about there, even when you were half awake 
in the morning, and learned to know, in the 
course of a few weeks' experience, in ex- 
actly which corner of the garden she might 
be. 

At one side of this herb plot were other 
growths of a rustic pharmacopoeia, great 
treasures and rarities among the commoner 
herbs. There were some strange and pun- 
gent odors that roused a dim sense and re- 
membrance of something in the forgotten 
past. Some of these might once have be- 
longed to sacred and mystic rites, and have 
had some occult knowledge handed with 
them down the centuries ; but now they per- 
tained only to humble compounds brewed at 
intervals with molasses or vinegar or spirits 
in a small caldron on Mrs. Todd's kitchen 
stove. They were dispensed to suffering 
neighbors, who usually came at night as if 



MRS. TODD. 5 

by stealth, bringing their own ancient-look- 
ing vials to be filled. One nostrum was 
called the Indian remedy, and its price was 
but fifteen cents ; the whispered directions 
could be heard as customers passed the win- 
dows. With most remedies the purchaser 
was allowed to depart unadmonished from 
the kitchen, Mrs. Todd being a wise saver 
of steps ; but with certain vials she gave 
cautions, standing in the doorway, and there 
were other doses which had to be accom- 
panied on their healing way as far as the 
gate, while she muttered long chapters of 
directions, and kept up an air of secrecy 
and importance to the last. It may not have 
been only the common ails of humanity 
with which she tried to cope ; it seemed 
sometimes as if love and hate and jealousy 
and adverse winds at sea might also find 
their proper remedies among the curious 
wild-looking plants in Mrs. Todd's garden. 

The village doctor and this learned herb- 
alist were upon the best of terms. The 
good man may have counted upon the un- 
favorable effect of certain potions which he 
should find his opportunity in counteract- 
ing ; at any rate, he now and then stopped 
and exchanged greetings with Mrs. Todd 



6 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

over the picket fence. The conversation 
became at once professional after the brief- 
est preliminaries, and he would stand twirl- 
ing a sweet-scented sprig in his fingers, and 
make suggestive jokes, perhaps about her 
faith in a too persistent course of thorough- 
wort elixir, in which my landlady professed 
such firm belief as sometimes to endanger 
the life and usefulness of worthy neighbors. 
To arrive at this quietest of seaside vil- 
lages late in June, when the busy herb- 
gathering season was just beginning, was 
also to arrive in the early prime of Mrs. 
Todd's activity in the brewing of old-fash- 
ioned spruce beer. This cooling and re- 
freshing drink had been brought to won- 
derful perfection through a long series of 
experiments; it had won immense local 
fame, and the supplies for its manufacture 
were always giving out and having to be 
replenished. For various reasons, the se- 
clusion and uninterrupted days which had 
been looked forward to proved to be very 
rare in this otherwise delightful corner of 
the world. My hostess and I had made our 
shrewd business agreement on the basis of a 
simple cold luncheon at noon, and liberal 
restitution in the matter of hot suppers, to 



MES. TODD. 1 

provide for which the lodger might some- 
times be seen hurrying down the road, late 
in the day, with cunner line in hand. It 
was soon found that this arrangement made 
larg-e allowance for Mrs. Todd's slow herb- 
gathering progresses through woods and 
pastures. The spruce-beer customers were 
pretty steady in hot weather, and there were 
many demands for different soothing syrups 
and elixirs with which the unwise curios- 
ity of my early residence had made me 
acquainted. Knowing Mrs. Todd to be a 
widow, who had little beside this slender 
business and the income from one hungry 
lodger to maintain her, one's energies and 
even interest were quickly bestowed, until it 
became a matter of course that she should 
go afield every pleasant day, and that the 
lodger should answer all peremptory knocks 
at the side door. 

In taking an occasional wisdom-giving 
stroll in Mrs. Todd's company, and in act- 
ing as business partner during her frequent 
absences, I found the July days fly fast, and 
it was not until I felt myself confronted 
with too great pride and pleasure in the dis- 
play, one night, of two dollars and twenty- 
seven cents which I had taken in during 



8 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

the day, that I remembered a long piece 
of writing, sadly belated now, which I was 
bound to do. To have been patted kindly 
on the shoulder and called "darlin','' to 
have been offered a surprise of early mush- 
rooms for supper, to have had all the glory 
of making two dollars and twenty -seven 
cents in a single day, and then to renounce 
it all and withdraw from these pleasant suc- 
cesses, needed much resolution. Literary 
employments are so vexed with uncertain- 
ties at best, and it was not until the voice of 
conscience sounded louder in my ears than 
the sea on the nearest pebble beach that I 
said unkind words of withdrawal to Mrs. 
Todd. She only became more wistfully af- 
fectionate than ever in her expressions, and 
looked as disappointed as I expected when I 
frankly told her that I could no longer en- 
joy the pleasure of what we called "seein* 
folks." I felt that I was cruel to a whole 
neighborhood in curtailing her liberty in 
this most important season for harvesting 
the different wild herbs that were so much 
counted upon to ease their winter ails. 

" Well, dear," she said sorrowfully, " I 've 
took great advantage o' your bein' here. I 
ain't had such a season for years, but I have 



MRS. TODD. 9 

never had nobody I could so trust. All you 
lack is a few qualities, but with time you 'd 
gain judgment an' experience, an' be very 
able in the business. I 'd stand right here 
an' say it to anybody." 

Mrs. Todd and I were not separated or 
estranged by the change in our business re- 
lations ; on the contrary, a deeper intimacy 
seemed to begin. I do not know what herb 
of the night it was that used sometimes to 
send out a penetrating odor late in the even- 
ing, after the dew had fallen, and the moon 
was high, and the cool air came up from 
the sea. Then Mrs. Todd would feel that 
she must talk to somebody, and I was only 
too glad to listen. We both fell under the 
spell, and she either stood outside the win- 
dow, or made an errand to my sitting-room, 
and told, it might be very commonplace 
news of the day, or, as happened one misty 
summer night, all that lay deepest in her 
heart. It was in this way that I came to 
know that she had loved one who was far 
above her. 

" No, dear, him I speak of could never 
think of me," she said. " When we was 
young together his mother did n't favor the 



10 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

match, an' done everything she could to part 
us ; and folks thought we both married 
well, but 't wa'n't what either one of us 
wanted most ; an' now we 're left alone 
again, an' might have had each other all the 
time. He was above bein' a seafarin' man, 
an' prospered more than most ; he come of 
a high family, an' my lot was plain an' hard- 
workin'. I ain't seen him for some years ; 
he 's forgot our youthful feelin's, I expect, 
but a woman's heart is different ; them feel- 
in's comes back when you think you've done 
with 'em, as sure as spring comes with the 
year. An' I 've always had ways of hearin' 
about him." 

She stood in the centre of a braided rug, 
and its rings of black and gray seemed to 
circle about her feet in the dim light. Her 
height and massiveness in the low room gave 
her the look of a huge sibyl, while the 
strange fragrance of the mysterious herb 
blew in from the little garden. 



III. 

THE SCHOOLHOUSE. 

For some days after this, Mrs. Todd's 
customers came and went past my windows, 
and, liaying-time being nearly over, strangers 
began to arrive from the inland country, 
such was her widespread reputation. Some- 
times I saw a pale young creature like a 
white windflower left over into midsummer, 
upon whose face consumption had set its 
bright and wistful mark ; but oftener two 
stout, hard-worked women from the farms 
came together, and detailed their symptoms 
to Mrs. Todd in loud and cheerful voices, 
combining the satisfactions of a friendly 
gossip with the medical opportunity. They 
seemed to give much from their own store 
of therapeutic learning. I became aware 
of the school in which my landlady had 
strengthened her natural gift ; but hers was 
always the governing mind, and the final 
command, "Take of hy'sop one handful" 



12 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIRS. 

(or whatever herb it was), was received in 
respectful silence. One afternoon, when I 
had listened, — it was imj)ossible not to lis- 
ten, with cottonless ears, — and then laughed 
and listened again, with an idle pen in my 
hand, during a particularly spirited and 
personal conversation, I reached for my hat, 
and, taking blotting-book and all under my 
arm, I resolutely fled further temptation, 
and walked out past the fragrant green gar- 
den and up the dusty road. The way went 
straight uphill, and presently I stopped and 
turned to look back. 

The tide was in, the wide harbor was sur- 
rounded by its dark woods, and the small 
wooden houses stood as near as they could 
get to the landing. Mrs. Todd's was the 
last house on the way inland. The gray 
ledges of the rocky shore were well covered 
with sod in most places, and the pasture 
bayberry and wild roses grew thick among 
them. I could see the higher inland country 
and the scattered farms. On the brink of 
the hill stood a little white schoolhouse, 
much wind-blown and weather-beaten, which 
was a landmark to seagoing folk ; from its 
door there was a most beautiful view of sea 
and shore. The summer vacation now pre- 



THE SCHOOLHOUSE. 13 

vailed, and after finding the door unfastened, 
and taking a long look through one of the 
seaward windows, and reflecting afterward 
for some time in a shady place near by 
among the bayberry bushes, I returned to 
the chief place of business in the village, 
and, to the amusement of two of the select- 
men, brothers and autocrats of Dunnet 
Landing, I hired the schoolhouse for the 
rest of the vacation for fifty cents a week. 

Selfish as it may appear, the retired situ- 
ation seemed to possess great advantages, 
and I spent many days there quite undis- 
turbed, with the sea-breeze blowing through 
the small, high windows and swaying the 
heavy outside shutters to and fro. I hung 
my hat and luncheon-basket on an entry 
nail as if I were a small scholar, but I sat 
at the teacher's desk as if I were that great 
authority, with all the timid empty benches 
in rows before me. Now and then an idle 
sheep came and stood for a long time look- 
ing in at the door. At sundown I went 
back, feeling most businesslike, down toward 
the village again, and usually met the flavor, 
not of the herb garden, but of Mrs. Todd's 
hot supper, halfway up the hill. On the 
nights when there were evening meetings or 



14 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

other public exercises that demanded her 
presence we had tea very early, and I was 
welcomed back as if from a long absence. 

Once or twice I feigned excuses for stay- 
ing at home, while Mrs. Todd made distant 
excursions, and came home late, with both 
hands full and a heavily laden apron. This 
was in pennyroyal time, and when the rare 
lobelia was in its prime and the elecampane 
was coming on. One day she appeared at 
the schoolhouse itself, partly out of amused 
curiosity about my industries ; but she ex- 
plained that there was no tansy in the neigh- 
borhood with such snap to it as some that 
grew about the schoolhouse lot. Being 
scuffed down all the spring made it grow so 
much the better, like some folks that had it 
hard in their youth, and were bound to make 
the most of themselves before they died. 



IV. 

AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE WINDOW. 

One day I readied the sclioolhouse very- 
late, owing to attendance upon the funeral 
of an acquaintance and neighbor, with whose 
sad decline in health I had been familiar, 
and whose last days both the doctor and 
Mrs. Todd had tried in vain to ease. The 
services had taken place at one o'clock, and 
now, at quarter past two, I stood at the 
schoolhouse window, looking down at the 
procession as it went along the lower road 
close to the shore. It was a walking funeral, 
and even at that distance I could recognize 
most of the mourners as they went their sol- 
emn way. Mrs. Begg had been very much 
respected, and there was a large company 
of friends following to her grave. She had 
been brought up on one of the neighboring 
farms, and each of the few times that I had 
seen her she professed great dissatisfaction 
with town life. The people lived too close 



16 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

together for her liking, at the Landing, and 
she could not get used to the constant sound 
of the sea. She had lived to lament three 
seafaring husbands, and her house was dec- 
orated with West Indian curiosities, speci- 
mens of conch shells and fine coral which 
they had brought home from their voyages 
in lumber-laden ships. Mrs. Todd had told 
me all our neighbor's history. They had 
been girls together, and, to use her own 
phrase, had " both seen trouble till they 
knew the best and worst on 't." I could 
see the sorrowful, large figure of Mrs. Todd 
as I stood at the window. She made a break 
in the procession by walking slowly and 
keeping the after-part of it back. She held 
a handkerchief to her eyes, and I knew, 
with a pang of sympathy, that hers was not 
affected grief. 

Beside her, after much difficulty, I recog- 
nized the one strange and unrelated person 
in all the company, an old man who had 
always been mysterious to me. I could see 
his thin, bending figure. He wore a narrow, 
long-tailed coat and walked with a stick, and 
had the same " cant to leeward " as the 
wind-bent trees on the height above. 

This was Captain Littlepage, whom I had 



AT TEE SCHOOLHOUSE V/ IN DOW. 17 

seen only once or twice before, sitting pale 
find old behind a closed window ; never out 
of doors until now. Mrs. Todd always 
shook her head gravely when I asked a ques- 
tion, and said that he was n't what he had 
been once, and seemed to class him with 
her other secrets. He might have belonged 
with a simple which grew in a certain slug- 
haunted corner of the garden, whose use 
she could never be betrayed into telling me, 
though I saw her cutting the tops by moon- 
light once, as if it were a charm, and not a 
medicine, like the great fading bloodroot 
leaves. 

I could see that she was trying to keep 
pace with the old captain's lighter steps. 
He looked like an aged grasshopper of some 
strange human variety. Behind this pair 
was a short, impatient, little person, who 
kept the captain's house, and gave it what 
Mrs. Todd and others believed to be no 
proper sort of care. She w^as usually called 
" that Mari' Harris " in subdued conversa- 
tion between intimates, but they treated her 
with anxious civility when they met her face 
to face. 

The bay-sheltered islands and the great 
sea beyond stretched away to the far horizon 



18 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

southward and eastward ; the little proces- 
sion in the foreground looked futile and 
helpless on the edge of the rocky shore. It 
was a glorious day early in July, with a clear, 
high sky ; there were no clouds, there was 
no noise of the sea. The song sparrows 
sang and sang, as if with joyous knowledge 
of immortality, and contempt for those who 
could so pettily concern themselves with 
death. I stood watching until the funeral 
procession had crept round a shoulder of the 
slope below and disappeared from the great 
landscape as if it had gone into a cave. 

An hour later I was busy at my work. 
Now and then a bee blundered in and took 
me for an enemy ; but there was a useful 
stick upon the teacher's desk, and I rapped 
to call the bees to order as if they were 
unruly scholars, or waved them away from 
their riots over the ink, which I had bought 
at the Landing store, and discovered too 
late to be scented with bergamot, as if to 
refresh the labors of anxious scribes. One 
anxious scribe felt very dull that day ; a 
sheep-bell tinkled near by, and called her 
wandering wits after it. The sentences 
failed to catch these lovely summer cadences. 
For the first time I bes:an to wish for a com- 



AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE WINDOW. 19 

panion and for news from the outer world, 
which had been, half unconsciously, forgot- 
ten. Watching the funeral gave one a sort 
of pain. I began to wonder if I ought not 
to have walked with the rest, instead of hur- 
rying away at the end of the services. Per- 
haps the Sunday gown I had put on for the 
occasion was making this disastrous change 
of feeling, but I had now made myseK and 
my friends remember that I did not really 
belong to Dunnet Landing. 

I sighed, and turned to the half-written 
page again. 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 

It was a long time after this; an hour 
was very long in that coast town where no- 
thing stole away the shortest minute. I had 
lost myself completely in work, when I heard 
footsteps outside. There was a steep foot- 
path between the upper and the lower road, 
which I climbed to shorten the way, as the 
children had taught me, but I believed that 
Mrs. Todd would find it inaccessible, unless 
she had occasion to seek me in great haste. 
I wrote on, feeling like a besieged miser of 
time, while the footsteps came nearer, and 
the sheep-bell tinkled away in haste as if 
some one had shaken a stick in its wearer's 
face. Then I looked, and saw Captain Lit- 
tlepage passing the nearest window ; the 
next moment he tapped politely at the door. 

" Come in, sir," I said, rising to meet 
Lim ; and he entered, bowing with much 
courtesy. I stepped down from the desk 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 21 

and offered him a chair by the window, 
where he seated himself at once, being 
sadly spent by his climb. I retm^ned to my 
fixed seat behind the teacher's desk, which 
gave him the lower place of a scholar. 

" You ought to have the place of honor, 
Captain Littlepage," I said. 

" A liappy, rural seat of various views," 

he quoted, as he gazed out into the sunshine 
and up the long wooded shore. Then he 
glanced at me, and looked all about him as 
pleased as a child. 

" My quotation was from Paradise Lost : 
the greatest of poems, I suppose you 
know?" audi nodded. " There 's nothing 
that ranks, to my mind, with Paradise Lost ; 
it 's all lofty, all lofty," he continued. 
" Shakespeare was a great poet ; he copied 
life, but you have to put up with a great 
deal of low talk." 

I now remembered that Mrs. Todd had 
told me one day that Captain Littlepage 
had overset his mind vv^itli too much read- 
ing ; she had also made dark reference to 
his having " spells " of some unexplainable 
nature. I could not help wondering what 
errand had brousfht him out in search of 



22 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIBS. 

me. There was something quite charming 
in his appearance : it was a face thin and 
delicate with refinement, but worn into ap- 
pealing lines, as if he had suffered from 
loneliness and misapprehension. He looked, 
with his careful precision of dress, as if he 
were the object of cherishing care on the 
part of elderly unmarried sisters, but I 
knew Mari' Harris to be a very common- 
place, inelegant person, who would have no 
such standards ; it was plain that the cap- 
tain was his own attentive valet. He sat 
looking at me expectantly. I could not 
help thinking that, with his queer head and 
length of thinness, he was made to hop 
along the road of life rather than to walk. 
The captain was very grave indeed, and I 
bade my inward spirit keep close to dis- 
cretion. 

" Poor Mrs. Begg has gone," I ventured 
to say. I still wore my Sunday gown by 
way of showing respect. 

" She has gone," said the captain, — 
" very easy at the last, I was informed ; she 
slipped away as if she were glad of the op- 
portunity." 

I thought of the Countess of Carberry, 
and felt that history repeated itseK. 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 23 

" Slie was one of the old stock," continued 
Captain Littlepage, with touching sincerity. 
" She was very much looked up to in this 
town, and will be missed." 

I wondered, as I looked at him, if he had 
sprung from a line of ministers ; he had 
the refinement of look and air of command 
which are the heritage of the old ecclesiasti- 
cal families of New England. But as Dar- 
win says in his autobiography, " there is no 
such king as a sea-captain ; he is greater 
even than a king or a schoolmaster ! " 

Captain Littlepage moved his chair out 
of the wake of the sunshine, and still sat 
looking at me. I began to be very eager to 
know upon what errand he had come. 

" It may be found out some o' these 
days," he said earnestly. " We may know 
it all, the next step ; where Mrs. Begg is 
now, for instance. Certainty, not conjec- 
ture, is what we all desire." 

" I suppose we shall know it all some 
day," said I. 

" We shall know it while yet below," 
insisted the captain, with a flush of impa- 
tience on his thin cheeks. " We have not 
looked for truth in the right direction. I 
know what I speak of; those who have 



24 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

laughed at me little know how much reason 
my ideas are based upon." He waved his 
hand toward the village below. " In that 
handful of houses they fancy that they 
comprehend the universe." 

I smiled, and waited for him to go on. 

" I am an old man, as you can see," he con- 
tinued, " and I have been a shipmaster the 
greater part of my life, — forty -three years 
in all. You may not think it, but I am 
above eighty years of age." 

He did not look so old, and I hastened to 
say so. 

" You must have left the sea a good many 
years ago, then, Captain Littlepage ? " I 
said. 

" I should have been serviceable at least 
five or six years more," he answered. ^' My 
acquaintance with certain — my experience 
upon a certain occasion, I might say, gave 
rise to prejudice. I do not mind telling you 
that I chanced to learn of one of the great- 
est discoveries that man has ever made." 

Now we were approaching dangerous 
ground, but a sudden sense of his suffer- 
ings at the hands of the ignorant came to 
my help, and I asked to hear more with all 
the deference I really felt. A swallow flew 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 25 

into the schoolhouse at tliis moment as if 
a kingbird were after it, and beat itself 
against the walls for a minute, and escaped 
again to the open air ; but Captain Lit- 
tlepage took no notice whatever of the 
flurry. 

" I had a valuable cargo of general mer- 
chandise from the London docks to Fort 
Churchill, a station of the old company on 
Hudson's Bay," said the captain earnestly. 
" We were delayed in lading, and baffled by 
head winds and a heavy tumbling sea all the 
way north-about and across. Then the fog 
kept us off the coast ; and when I made 
port at last, it was too late to delay in those 
northern waters with such a vessel and such 
a crew as I had. They cared for nothing, 
and idled me into a fit of sickness ; but my 
first mate was a good, excellent man, with 
no more idea of being frozen in there until 
spring than I had, so we made what speed 
we could to get clear of Hudson's Bay and 
off the coast. I owned an eighth of the 
vessel, and he owned a sixteenth of her. 
She was a full-rigged ship, called the Mi- 
nerva, but she was getting old and leaky. 
I meant it should be my last v'y'ge in her, 
and so it proved. She had been an excel- 



26 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

lent vessel in her day. Of tlie cowards 
aboard her I can't say so much." 

" Then you were wrecked ? " I asked, as 
he made a long pause. 

" I wa'n't caught astern o' the lighter by 
any fault of mine," said the captain gloom- 
ily. " We left Fort Churchill and run oat 
into the Bay with a light pair o' heels ; but 
I had been vexed to death with their red- 
tape rigging at the company's office, and 
chilled with stayin' on deck an' tryin' to 
hurry up things, and when we were well 
out o' sight o' land, headin' for Hudson's 
Straits, I had a bad turn o' some sort o' 
fever, and had to stay below. The days 
were getting short, and we made good runs, 
all well on board but me, and the crew done 
their work by dint of hard driving." 

I began to find this unexpected narrative 
a little dull. Captain Littlepage spoke 
with a kind of slow correctness that lacked 
the longshore high flavor to which I had 
grown used ; but I listened respectfully 
while he explained the winds having become 
contrary, and talked on in a dreary sort of 
way about his voyage, the bad weather, and 
the disadvantages he was under in the light- 
ness of his ship, which bounced about like a 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 27 

chip in a bucket, and would not answer the 
rudder or properly respond to the most care- 
ful setting of sails. 

" So there we were blowin' along any- 
ways," he complained ; but looking at me 
at this moment, and seeing that my thoughts 
were unkindly wandering, he ceased to 
speak. 

" It v/as a hard life at sea in those days, 
I am sure," said I, with redoubled interest. 

" It was a dog's life," said the poor old 
gentleman, quite reassured, "but it made 
men of those who followed it. I see a 
change for the worse even in our own town 
here ; full of loafers now, small and poor as 
't is, who once would have followed the sea, 
every lazy soul of 'em. There is no occu- 
pation so fit for just that class o' men who 
never get beyond the fo'cas'le. I view it, in 
addition, that a community narrows down 
and grows dreadful ignorant when it is shut 
up to its own affairs, and gets no knowledge 
of the outside world except from a cheap, 
unprincipled newspaper. In the old days, 
a good part o' the best men here knew a 
hundred ports and something of the way 
folks lived in them. They saw the world 
for themselves, and like 's not their wives 



28 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

and cliildren saw it with them. They may 
not have had the best of knowledge to carry 
with 'em sight-seein', but they were some 
acquainted with foreign lands an' their laws, 
an' could see outside the battle for town 
clerk here in Dunnet ; they got some sense 
o' proportion. Yes, they lived more digni- 
fied, and their houses were better within an' 
without. Shipping 's a terrible loss to this 
part o' New England from a social point o' 
view, ma'am." 

" I have thought of that myself," I re- 
turned, with my interest quite awakened. 
" It accounts for the change in a great many 
things, — the sad disappearance of sea-cap- 
tains, — does n't it ? " 

" A shipmaster was apt to get the habit 
of reading," said my companion, brightening 
still more, and taking on a most touching air 
of unreserve. " A captain is not expected 
to be familiar with his crew, and for com- 
pany's sake in dull days and nights he turns 
to his book. Most of us old shipmasters 
came to know 'most everything about some- 
thing ; one would take to readin' on farming 
topics, and some were great on medicine, — 
but Lord help their poor crews ! — or some 
were all for history, and now and then there 'd 



CAPTAIN LITTLEPAGE. 29 

be one like me that gave his time to the 
poets. I was well acquainted with a ship- 
master that was all for bees an' bee-keepin' ; 
and if you met him in port and went aboard, 
he 'd sit and talk a terrible while about their 
havin' so much information, and the money 
that could be made out of keepin' 'em. He 
was one of the smartest captains that ever 
sailed the seas, but they used to call the 
Newcastle, a great bark he commanded for 
many years, Tuttle's beehive. There was 
old Cap'n Jameson : he had notions of Solo- 
mon's Temple, and made a very handsome 
little model of the same, right from the 
Scripture measurements, same 's other sail- 
ors make little ships and design new tricks 
of rigging and all that. No, there 's nothing 
to take the place of shipping in a place like 
ours. These bicycles offend me dreadfully ; 
they don't afford no real opportunities of 
experience such as a man gained on a voy- 
age. No : when folks left home in the old 
days they left it to some purpose, and when 
they got home they stayed there and had 
some pride in it. There 's no large-minded 
way of thinking now : the worst have got to 
be best and rule everything ; we 're all turned 
upside down and going back year by year." 



so COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

" Oh no, Captain Littlepage, I hope not," 
said I, trying to soothe his feelings. 

There was a silence in the schoolhouse, 
but we could hear the noise of the water on 
a beach below. It sounded like the strange 
warning wave that gives notice of the turn 
of the tide. A late golden robin, with the 
most joyful and eager of voices, was singing 
close by in a thicket of wild roses. 



VI. 

THE WAITING PLACE. 

" How did you manage with the rest of 
that rough voyage on the Minerva?" I 
asked. 

" I shall be glad to explain to you," said 
Captain Littlepage, forgetting his grievances 
for the moment. " If I had a map at hand 
I could explain better. We were driven to 
and fro 'way up toward what we used to call 
Parry's Discoveries, and lost our bearings. 
It was thick and foggy, and at last I lost my 
ship ; she drove on a rock, and we managed 
to get ashore on what I took to be a barren 
island, the few of us that were left alive. 
When she first struck, the sea was somewhat 
calmer than it had been, and most of the 
crew, against orders, manned the long-boat 
and put off in a hurry, and were never heard 
of more. Our own boat upset, but the car- 
penter kept himself and me above water, 
and we drifted in. I had no strength to call 



32 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

upon after my recent fever, and laid down 
to die ; but he found the tracks of a man 
and dog the second day, and got along the 
shore to one of those far missionary stations 
that the Moravians support. They were 
very poor themselves, and in distress ; 't was 
a useless place. There were but few Esqui- 
maux left in that region. There we remained 
for some time, and I became acquainted 
with strange events." 

The captain lifted his head and gave me 
a questioning glance. I could not help no- 
ticing that the dulled look in his eyes had 
gone, and there was instead a clear intent- 
ness that made them seem dark and piercing. 

" There was a supply ship expected, and 
the pastor, an excellent Christian man, made 
no doubt that we should get passage in her. 
He was hoping that orders would come to 
break up the station; but everything was 
uncertain, and we got on the best we could 
for a while. We fished, and helped the 
people in other ways ; there was no other 
way of paying our debts. I was taken to 
the pastor's house until I got better ; but 
they were crowded, and I felt myself in the 
way, and made excuse to join with an old 
seaman, a Scotchman, who had built him a 



THE WAITING PLACE. 33 

warm cabin, and had room in it for another. 
He was looked upon with regard, and had 
stood by the pastor in some troubles with 
the people. He had been on one of those 
English exploring parties that found one 
end of the road to the north pole, but never 
could find the other. We lived like dogs in 
a kennel, or so you'd thought if you had 
seen the hut from the outside ; but the main 
thing was to keep warm ; there were piles 
of birdskins to lie on, and he 'd made him a 
good bunk, and there was another for me. 
'T was dreadful dreary waitin' there ; we 
begun to think the supply steamer was lost, 
and my poor ship broke up and strewed her- 
self all along the shore. We got to watch- 
ing on the headlands ; my men and me knew 
the people were short of supplies and had to 
pinch themselves. It ought to read in the 
Bible, ' Man cannot live by fish alone,' if 
they 'd told the truth of things ; 't aint bread 
that wears the worst on you! First part 
of the time, old Gaffett, that I lived with, 
seemed speechless, and I did n't know what 
to make of him, nor he of me, I dare say ; 
but as we got acquainted, I found he 'd been 
through more disasters than I had, and had 
troubles that wa'n't going to let him live a 



34 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

great while. It used to ease his mind to 
talk to an understanding person, so we used 
to sit and talk together all day, if it rained 
or blew so that we could n't get out. I 'd got 
a bad blow on the back of my head at the 
time we came ashore, and it pained me at 
times, and my strength was broken, anyway ; 
I 've never been so able since." 

Captain Littlepage fell into a reverie. 

" Then I had the good of my reading," 
he explained presently. " I had no books ; 
the pastor spoke but little English, and all 
his books were foreign ; but I used to say 
over all I could remember. The old poets 
little knew what comfort they could be to a 
man. I was well acquainted with the works 
of Milton, but up there it did seem to me 
as if Shakespeare was the king ; he has his 
sea terms very accurate, and some beautiful 
passages were calming to the mind. I could 
say them over until I shed tears ; there was 
nothing beautiful to me in that place but the 
stars above and those passages of verse. 

*' Gaffett was always brooding and brood- 
ing, and talking to himself ; he was afraid 
he should never get away, and it preyed upon 
his mind. He thought when I got home I 
could interest the scientific men in his dis- 



THE WAITING PLACE. 35 

covery : but they 're all taken up with their 
own notions ; some did n't even take pains 
to answer the letters I wrote. You observe 
that I said this crippled man Gaffett had 
been shipped on a voyage of discovery. I 
now tell you that the ship was lost on its re- 
turn, and only Gaffett and two officers were 
saved off the Greenland coast, and he had 
knowledge later that those men never got 
back to England ; the brig they shipped on 
was run down in the night. So no other 
living soul had the facts, and he gave them 
to me. There is a strange sort of a country 
'way up north beyond the ice, and strange 
folks living in it. Gaffett believed it was 
the next world to this." 

"What do you mean, Captain Little- 
page ? " I exclaimed. The old man was 
bending forward and whispering ; he looked 
over his shoulder before he spoke the last 
sentence. 

" To hear old Gaffett tell about it was 
something awful," he said, going on with his 
story quite steadily after the moment of ex- 
citement had passed. " 'T was first a tale 
of dogs and sledges, and cold and wind and 
snow. Then they begun to find the ice grow 
rotten ; they had been frozen in, and got 



36 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

into a current flowing north, far up beyond 
Fox Channel, and they took to their boats 
when the ship got crushed, and this warm 
current took them out of sight of the ice, 
and into a great open sea ; and they still fol- 
lowed it due north, just the very way they 
had planned to go. Then they struck a 
coast that was n't laid down or charted, but 
the cliffs were such that no boat could land 
until they found a bay and struck across 
under sail to the other side where the shore 
looked lower ; they were scant of provisions 
and out of water, but they got sight of some- 
thing that looked like a great town. ' For 
God's sake, Gaffett ! ' said I, the first time 
he told me. ' You don't mean a town two 
degrees farther north than ships had ever 
been ? ' for he 'd got their course marked on 
an old chart that he 'd pieced out at the top ; 
but he insisted upon it, and told it over and 
over again, to be sure I had it straight to 
carry to those who would be interested. 
There was no snow and ice, he said, after 
they had sailed some days with that warm 
current, which seemed to come right from 
under the ice that they 'd been pinched 
up in and had been crossing on foot for 
weeks." 



THE WAITING PLACE. 37 

"But what about the town?" I asked. 
" Did they get to the town ? " 

» They did," said the captain, " and found 
inhabitants; 't was an awful condition of 
things. It appeared, as near as Gaffett could 
express it, like a place where there was 
neither living nor dead. They could see 
the place when they were approaching it by 
sea pretty near like any town, and thick with 
habitations ; but all at once they lost sight 
of it altogether, and when they got close in- 
shore they could see the shapes of folks, 
but they never could get near them, — all 
blowing gray figures that would pass along 
alone, or sometimes gathered in companies 
as if they were watching. The men were 
frightened at first, but the shapes never came 
near them, — it was as if they blew back ; 
and at last they all got bold and went ashore, 
and found birds' eggs and sea fowl, like any 
wild northern spot where creatures were 
tame and folks had never been, and there 
was good water. Gaffett said that he and 
another man came near one o' the fog-shaped 
men that was going along slow with the look 
of a pack on his back, among the rocks, an' 
they chased him; but. Lord! he flittered 
away out o' sight like a leaf the wind takes 



38 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

with it, or a piece of cobweb. They would 
make as if they talked together, but there 
was no sound of voices, and ' they acted as if 
they did n't see us, but only felt us coming 
towards them,' says Gaffett one day, try- 
ing to tell the particulars. They couldn't 
see the town when they were ashore. One 
day the captain and the doctor were gone 
till night up across the high land where the 
town had seemed to be, and they came back 
at night beat out and white as ashes, and 
wrote and wrote all next day in their note- 
books, and whispered together full of excite- 
ment, and they were sharp-spoken with the 
men when they offered to ask any questions. 
" Then there came a day," said Captain 
Littlepage, leaning toward me with a strange 
look in his eyes, and whispering quickly. 
" The men all swore they would n't stay any 
longer ; the man on watch early in the morn- 
ing gave the alarm, and they all put off in 
the boat and got a little way out to sea. 
Those folks, or whatever they were, come 
about 'em like bats ; all at once they raised 
incessant armies, and come as if to drive 'em 
back to sea. They stood thick at the edge 
o' the water like the ridges o' grim war ; no 
thought o' flight, none of retreat. Some- 



THE WAITING PLACE. 39 

times a standing fight, then soaring on main 
wing tormented all the air. And when 
they 'd got the boat out o' reach o' danger, 
Gaffett said they looked back, and there was 
the town again, standing up just as they 'd 
seen it first, comin' on the coast. Say what 
you might, they all believed 't was a kind 
of waiting-place between this world an' the 
next." 

The captain had sprung to his feet in his 
excitement, and made excited gestures, but 
he still whispered huskily. 

" Sit down, sir," I said as quietly as I 
could, and he sank into his chair quite spent. 

" Gaffett thought the officers were hurry- 
ing home to report and to fit out a new ex- 
pedition when they were all lost. At the 
time, the men got orders not to talk over 
what they had seen," the old man explained 
presently in a more natural tone. 

" Were n't they all starving, and was n't it 
a mirage or something of that sort ? " I ven- 
tured to ask. But he looked at me blankly. 

"Gaffett had got so that his mind ran 
on nothing else," he went on. " The ship's 
surgeon let fall an opinion to the captain, 
one day, that 't was some condition o' the 
light and the magnetic currents that let 



40 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

them see those folks. 'T wa'n't a right-feel- 
ing part of the world, anyway ; they had 
to battle with the compass to make it serve, 
an' everything seemed to go wrong. Gaffett 
had worked it out in his own mind that they 
was all common ghosts, but the conditions 
were unusual favorable for seeing them. 
He was always talking about the Ge'graphi- 
cal Society, but he never took proper steps, 
as I view it now, and stayed right there at 
the mission. He was a good deal crippled, 
and thought they 'd confine him in some jail 
of a hospital. He said he was waiting to 
find the right men to tell, somebody bound 
north. Once in a while they stopped there 
to leave a mail or something. He was set 
in his notions, and let two or three proper 
explorin' expeditions go by him because he 
did n't like their looks ; but when I was 
there he had got restless, fearin' he might 
be taken away or something. He had all 
his directions written out straight as a string 
to give the right ones. I wanted him to 
trust 'em to me, so I might have something 
to show, but he would n't. I suppose he 's 
dead now. I wrote to him, an' I done all I 
could. 'T will be a great exploit some o' 
these days." 



THE WAITING PLACE. 41 

I assented absent-mindedly, thinking more 
just then of my companion's alert, deter- 
mined look and the seafaring, ready aspect 
that had come to his face ; but at this mo- 
ment there fell a sudden change, and the old, 
pathetic, scholarly look returned. Behind 
me hung a map of North America, and I 
saw, as I turned a little, that his eyes were 
fixed upon the northernmost regions and 
their careful recent outlines with a look of 
bewilderment. 



VII. 

THE OUTER ISLAND. 

Gaffett with his good bunk and the 
bird-skins, the story of the wreck of the 
Minerva, the human-shaped creatures of fog 
and cobweb, the great words of Milton with 
which he described their onslaught upon the 
crew, all this moving tale had such an air of 
truth that I could not argue with Captain 
Littlepage. The old man looked away from 
the map as if it had vaguely troubled him, 
and regarded me appealingly. 

" We were just speaking of " — and he 
stopped. I saw that he had suddenly for- 
gotten his subject. 

" There were a great many persons at the 
funeral," I hastened to say. 

" Oh yes," the captain answered, with sat- 
isfaction. " All showed respect who could. 
The sad circumstances had for a moment 
slipped my mind. Yes, Mrs. Begg will be 
very much missed. She was a capital man- 



THE OUTER ISLAND. 43 

ager for her husband when he was at sea. 
Oh yes, shippmg is a very great loss." And 
he sighed heavily. " There was hardly a 
man of any standing who did n't interest 
himself in some way in navigation. It 
always gave credit to a town. I call it low- 
water mark now here in Dunnet." 

He rose with dignity to take leave, and 
asked me to stop at his house some day, 
when he would show me some outlandish 
things that he had brought home from sea. 
I was familiar with the subject of the deca- 
dence of shipping interests in all its affect- 
ing branches, having been already some 
time in Dunnet, and I felt sure that Cap- 
tain Littlepage's mind had now returned to 
a safe level. 

As we came down the hill toward the vil- 
lage our ways divided, and when I had seen 
the old captain well started on a smooth 
piece of sidewalk which would lead him to 
his own door, we parted, the best of friends. 
" Step in some afternoon," he said, as affec- 
tionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster 
wrecked on the lee shore of age like him- 
self. I turned toward home, and presently 
met Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an 
anxious expression. 



44 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman 
down the hill," she suggested. 

"Yes. I've had a very interesting after- 
noon with him," I answered ; and her face 
brightened. 

" Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 
't was one o' his flighty spells, an' Mari' Har- 
ris would n't " — 

" Yes," I returned, smiling, " he has been 
telling me some old stories, but we talked 
about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and 
Paradise Lost." 

"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' 
his great narratives," she answered, looking 
at me shrewdly. " Funerals always sets him 
goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together 
toler'ble well," she added, with a sharper 
look than before. " An' he 's been a great 
reader all his seafarin' days. Some thinks 
he overdid, and affected his head, but for a 
man o' his years he 's amazin' now when he 's 
at his best. Oh, he used to be a beautiful 



mam 



! '» 



We were standing where there was a fine 
view of the harbor and its long stretches of 
shore all covered by the great army of the 
pointed firs, darkly cloaked and standing as 



THE OUTER ISLAND. 45 

if they waited to embark. As we looked 
far seaward among the outer islands, the 
trees seemed to march seaward still, going 
steadily over the heights and down to the 
water's edge. 

It had been growing gray and cloudy, like 
the first evening of autumn, and a shadow 
had fallen on the darkening shore. Sud- 
denly, as we looked, a gleam of golden sun- 
shine struck the outer islands, and one of 
them shone out clear in the light, and re- 
vealed itself in a compelling way to our 
eyes. Mrs. Todd was looking off across the 
bay with a face full of affection and interest. 
The sunburst upon that outermost island 
made it seem like a sudden revelation of the 
world beyond this which some believe to be 
so near. 

"That 's where mother lives," said Mrs. 
Todd. "Can't we see it plain? I was 
brought up out there on Green Island. I 
know every rock an' bush on it." 

" Your mother ! " I exclaimed, with great 
interest. 

"Yes, dear, cert'in; I've got her yet, 
old 's I be. She 's one of them spry, light- 
footed little women ; always was, an' light- 
hearted, too," answered Mrs. Todd, with 



46 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

satisfaction. " She 's seen all tlie trouble 
folks can see, without it 's her last sickness ; 
an' she 's got a word of courage for every- 
body. Life ain't spoilt her a mite. She 's 
eighty-six an' I 'm sixty-seven, and I 've 
seen the time I 've felt a good sight the old- 
est. ' Land sakes alive ! ' says she, last time 
I was out to see her. * How you do lurch 
about steppin' into a bo't ! ' I laughed so I 
liked to have gone right over into the water ; 
an' we pushed off, an' left her laughin' there 
on the shore." 

The light had faded as we watched. Mrs. 
Todd had mounted a gray rock, and stood 
there grand and architectural, like a carya- 
tide. Presently she stepped down, and we 
continued our way homeward. 

" You an' me, we '11 take a bo't an' go out 
some day and see mother," she promised 
me. " 'T would please her very much, an' 
there 's one or two sca'ce herbs grows bet- 
ter on the island than anywheres else. I 
ain't seen their like nowheres here on the 
main." 

"Now I'm goin' right down to get us 
each a mug o' my beer," she announced as 
we entered the house, " an' I believe I '11 
sneak in a little mite o' camomile. Goin' 



TEE OUTER ISLAND. 47 

to the funeral an' all, I feel to have had a 
very wearln' afternoon." 

I heard her going down into the cool little 
cellar, and then there was considerable delay. 
When she returned, mug in hand, I noticed 
the taste of camomile, in spite of my pro- 
test ; but its flavor was disguised by some 
other herb that I did not know, and she 
stood over me until I drank it all and said 
that I liked it. 

"I don't give that to everybody," said 
Mrs. Todd kindly ; and I felt for a moment 
as if it were part of a spell and incantation, 
and as if my enchantress would now begin 
to look like the cobweb shapes of the arctic 
town. Nothing happened but a quiet even- 
ing and some delightful plans that we made 
about going to Green Island, and on the 
morrow there was the clear sunshine and 
blue sky of another day. 



VIII. 

GREEN ISLAND. 

One morning, very early, I heard Mrs. 
Todd in the garden outside my window. By 
the unusual loudness of her remarks to a 
passer-by, and the notes of a familiar hymn 
which she sang as she worked among the 
herbs, and which came as if directed pur- 
posely to the sleepy ears of my conscious- 
ness, I knew that she wished I would wake 
up and come and speak to her. 

In a few minutes she responded to a morn- 
ing voice from behind the blinds. " I ex- 
pect you 're goin' up to your schoolhouse 
to pass all this pleasant day ; yes, I expect 
you 're goin' to be dreadful busy," she said 
despairingly. 

"Perhaps not," said I. "Why, what's 
going to be the matter with you, Mrs. 
Todd ? " For I supposed that she was 
tempted by the fine weather to take one of 
her favorite expeditions along the shore pas- 



GREEN ISLAND, 49 

tures to gather herbs and simples, and would 
like to liave me keep the house. 

" No, I don't want to go nowhere by 
land," she answered gayly, — "no, not by 
land ; but I don't know 's we shall have a 
better day all the rest of the summer to go 
out to Green Island an' see mother. I waked 
up early thinkin' of her. The wind 's light 
northeast, — 't will take us right straight 
out ; an' this time o' year it 's liable to change 
round southwest an' fetch us home pretty, 
long late in the afternoon. Yes, it 's goin' 
to be a good day." 

" Speak to the captain and the Bowden 
boy, if you see anybody going by toward 
the landing," said I. " We '11 take the big 
boat." 

" Oh, my sakes ! now you let me do things 
my way," said Mrs. Todd scornfully. " No, 
dear, we won't take no big bo't. I '11 just 
git a handy dory, an' Johnny Bowden an' 
me, we '11 man her ourselves. I don't want 
no abler bo't than a good dory, an' a nice 
light breeze ain't goin' to make no sea ; an' 
Johnny 's my cousin's son, — mother '11 like 
to have him come ; an' he '11 be down to the 
herrin' weirs all the time we 're there, any- 
way ; we don't want to carry no men folks 



50 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIBS. 

havin' to be considered every minute an* 
takin' up all our time. No, you let me do ; 
we '11 just slip out an' see mother by our- 
selves. I guess what breakfast you '11 want 's 
about ready now." 

I had become well acquainted with Mrs. 
Todd as landlady, herb-gatherer, and rustic 
philosopher; we had been discreet fellow- 
passengers once or twice when I had sailed 
up the coast to a larger town than Dunnet 
Landing to do some shopping; but I was 
yet to become acquainted with her as a 
mariner. An hour later we pushed off from 
the landing in the desired dory. The tide 
was just on the turn, beginning to fall, and 
several friends and acquaintances stood along 
the side of the dilapidated wharf and cheered 
us by their words and evident interest. 
Johnny Bowden and I were both rowing in 
haste to get out where we could catch the 
breeze and put up the small sail which lay 
clumsily furled along the gunwale. Mrs. 
Todd sat aft, a stern and unbending law- 
giver. 

" You better let her drift ; we '11 get there 
'bout as quick ; the tide '11 take her right 
out from under these old buildin's ; there 's 
plenty wind outside." 



GREEN ISLAND. 51 

"Your bo't ain't trimmed proper, Mis' 
Todd!" exclaimed a voice from shore. 
"You 're lo'ded so the bo't '11 drag; you 
can't git lier before the wind, ma'am. You 
set 'midships, Mis' Todd, an' let the boy 
hold the sheet 'n' steer after he o:its the 
sail uj) ; you won't never git out to Green 
Island that way. She 's lo'ded bad, your 
bo't is, — she 's heavy behind 's she is 
now ! " 

Mrs. Todd turned with some difficulty 
and regarded the anxious adviser, my right 
oar flew out of water, and we seemed about 
to capsize. " That you, Asa ? Good-morn- 
in', " she said politely. " I al'ays liked the 
starn seat best. When 'd you git back from 
up country? " 

This allusion to Asa's origin was not lost 
upon the rest of the company. We were 
some little distance from shore, but we could 
hear a chuckle of laughter, and Asa, a per- 
son who was too ready with his criticism and 
advice on every possible subject, turned and 
walked indignantly away. 

When we caught the wind we were soon on 
our seaward course, and only stopped to un- 
derrun a trawl, for the floats of which Mrs. 
Todd looked earnestly, explaining that her 



52 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIMS. 

mother miglit not be prepared for tkree 
extra to dinner ; it was her brother's trawl, 
and she meant to just run her eye along for 
the right sort of a little haddock. I leaned 
over the boat's side with great interest and 
excitement, while she skillfully handled 
the long line of hooks, and made scornful 
remarks upon worthless, bait-consuming crea- 
tures of the sea as she reviewed them and 
left them on the trawl or shook them off 
into the waves. At last we came to what 
she pronounced a proper haddock, and hav- 
ing taken him on board and ended his life 
resolutely, we went our way. 

As we sailed along I listened to an in- 
creasingly delightful commentary upon the 
islands, some of them barren rocks, or at 
best giving sparse pasturage for sheep in the 
early summer. On one of these an eager lit- 
tle flock ran to the water's edge and bleated 
at us so affectingly that I would willingly 
have stopped ; but Mrs. Todd steered away 
from the rocks, and scolded at the sheep's 
mean owner, an acquaintance of hers, who 
grudged the little salt and still less care 
which the patient creatures needed. The hot 
midsummer sun makes prisons of these small 
islands that are a paradise in early June, 



GREEN ISLAND. 53 

with their cool springs and short thick-grow- 
ing grass. On a larger island, farther out 
to sea, my entertaining companion showed 
me with glee the small houses of two farmers 
who shared the island between them, and de- 
clared that for three generations the people 
had not spoken to each other even in times 
of sickness or death or birth. " When the 
news come that the war was over, one of 'em 
knew it a week, and never stepped across his 
wall to tell the others," she said. "There, 
they enjoy it : they 've got to have somethin' 
to interest 'em in such a place ; 't is a good 
deal more tryin' to be tied to folks you don't 
like than 't is to be alone. Each of 'em 
tells the neighbors their wrongs; plenty 
likes to hear and tell again ; them as fetch a 
bone '11 carry one, an' so they keep the fight 
a-goin'. I must say I like variety myself ; 
some folks washes Monday an' irons Tues- 
day the whole year round, even if the circus 
is goin' by ! " 

A Ions' time before we landed at Green 
Island we could see the small white house, 
standing high like a beacon, where Mrs. 
Todd was born and where her mother lived, 
on a green slope above the water, with dark 
spruce woods still higher. There were crops 



54 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

in the fields, which we presently distinguished 
from one another. Mrs. Todd examined 
them while we were still far at sea. 
" Mother's late potatoes looks backward ; 
ain't had rain enough so far," she pro- 
nounced her opinion. " They look weedier 
than what they call Front Street down to 
Cowper Centre. I expect brother William 
is so occupied with his herrin' weirs an' 
servin' out bait to the schooners that he 
don't think once a day of the land." 

" What 's the flag for, up above the spruces 
there behind the house ? " I inquired, with 
eagerness. 

" Oh, that 's the sign for herrin', " she 
explained kindly, while Johnny Bowden 
regarded me with contemptuous surprise. 
*' When they get enough for schooners they 
raise that flag ; an' when 't is a poor catch 
in the weir pocket they just fly a little 
signal down by the shore, an' then the small 
bo'ts comes and get enough an' over for their 
trawls. There, look ! there she is : mother 
sees us ; she 's wavin' somethin' out o' the 
fore door I She '11 be to the landin'-place 
quick 's we are." 

I looked, and could see a tiny flutter in 
the doorway, but a quicker signal had made 



GREEN ISLAND. 55 

its way from the heart on shore to the heart 
on the sea. 

"How do you suppose she knows it's 
me?" said Mrs. Todd, with a tender smile 
on her broad face. " There, you never get 
over bein' a child long 's you have a mother 
to go to. Look at the chimney, now ; she 's 
gone right in an' brightened up the fire. 
Well, there, I 'm glad mother 's well ; you '11 
enjoy seein' her very much." 

Mrs. Todd leaned back into her proper 
position, and the boat trimmed again. She 
took a firmer grasp of the sheet, and gave 
an impatient look up at the gaff and the 
leech of the little sail, and twitched the sheet 
as if she urged the wind like a horse. There 
came at once a fresh gust, and we seemed 
to have doubled our speed. Soon we were 
near enough to see a tiny figure with hand- 
kerchiefed head come down across the field 
and stand waiting for us at the cove above 
a curve of pebble beach. 

Presently the dory grated on the pebbles, 
and Johnny Bowden, who had been kept in 
abeyance during the voyage, sprang out and 
used manful exertions to haul us up with the 
next wave, so that Mrs. Todd could make a 
dry landing. 



56 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

"You done that very well," she said, 
mounting to her feet, and coming ashore 
somewhat stiffly, but with great dignity,, re- 
fusing our outstretched hands, and return- 
ing to possess herself of a bag which had 
lain at her feet. 

" Well, mother, here I be ! " she an- 
nounced with indifference ; but they stood 
and beamed in each other's faces. 

" Lookin' pretty well for an old lady, ain't 
she ? " said Mrs. Todd's mother, turning 
away from her daughter to speak to me. 
She was a delightful little person herself, 
with bright eyes and an affectionate air of 
expectation like a child on a holiday. You 
felt as if Mrs. Blackett were an old and 
dear friend before you let go her cordial 
hand. We all started together up the hill. 

" Now don't you haste too fast, mother," 
said Mrs. Todd warningly ; " 't is a far 
reach o' risin' ground to the fore door, and 
you won't set an' get your breath when 
you 're once there, but go trotting about. 
Now don't you go a mite faster than we pro- 
ceed with this bag an' basket. Johnny, there, 
'11 fetch up the haddock. I just made one 
stop to underrun William's trawl till I come 
to jes' such a fish 's I thought you 'd want to 



GREEN ISLAND. 67 

make one o' your nice chowders of. I 've 
brought an onion with me that was layin' 
about on the window-sill at home." 

"That's just what I was wantin','' said 
the hostess. " I give a sigh when you 
spoke o' chowder, knowin' my onions was out. 
William forgot to replenish us last time he 
was to the Landin'. Don't you haste so 
yourself, Almiry, up this risin' ground. I 
hear you commencin' to wheeze a'ready." 

This mild revenge seemed to afford great 
pleasure to both giver and receiver. They 
laughed a little, and looked at each other 
affectionately, and then at me. Mrs. Todd 
considerately paused, and faced about to re- 
gard the wide sea view. I was glad to stop, 
being more out of breath than either of my 
companions, and I prolonged the halt by 
asking the names of the neighboring islands. 
There was a fine breeze blowing, which we 
felt more there on the high land than when 
we were running before it in the dory. 

" Why, this ain't that kitten I saw when 
I was out last, the one that I said did n't ap- 
pear likely ? " exclaimed Mrs. Todd as we 
went our way. 

" That 's the one, Almiry," said her 
mother. " She always had a likely look to 



68 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIRS. 

me, an' she 's right after her business. I 
never see such a mouser for one of her age. 
If 't wan't for William, I never should have 
housed that other dronin' old thing so long ; 
but he sets by her on account of her havin' 
a bob tail. I don't deem it advisable to 
maintain cats just on account of their bav- 
in' bob tails ; they 're like all other curiosi- 
ties, good for them that wants to see 'em 
twice. This kitten catches mice for both, 
an' keeps me respectable as I ain't been for 
a year. She 's a real understandin' little 
help, this kitten is. I picked her from 
among five Miss Augusta Pennell had over 
to Burnt Island," said the old woman, trudg- 
ing along with the kitten close at her skirts. 
" Augusta, she says to me, ' Why, Mis' 
Blackett, you've took the homeliest;' an' 
says I, ' I 've got the smartest ; I 'm satis- 
fied.' " 

" I 'd trust nobody sooner 'n you to pick 
out a kitten, mother," said the daughter 
handsomely, and we went on in peace and 
harmony. 

The house was just before us now, on a 
green level that looked as if a huge hand 
had scooped it out of the long green field 
we had been ascending. A little way above, 



GREEN ISLAND. 59 

the dark spruce woods began to climb tbe 
top of the hill and cover the seaward slopes 
of the island. There was just room for the 
small farm and the forest ; we looked down 
at the fish-house and its rough sheds, and 
the weirs stretching far out into the water. 
As we looked upward, the tops of the firs 
came sharp against the blue sky. There 
was a great stretch of rough pasture-land 
round the shoulder of the island to the east- 
ward, and here were all the thick-scattered 
gray rocks that kept their places, and the 
gray backs of many sheep that forever wan- 
dered and fed on the thin sweet pasturage 
that fringed the ledges and made soft hol- 
lows and strips of green turf like growing 
velvet. I could see the rich green of bay- 
berry bushes here and there, where the rocks 
made room. The air was very sweet ; one 
could not help wishing to be a citizen of 
such a complete and tiny continent and 
home of fisherfolk. 

The house was broad and clean, with a 
roof that looked heavy on its low walls. It 
was one of the houses that seem firm-rooted 
in the ground, as if they were two-thirds 
below the surface, like icebergs. The front 
door stood hospitably open in expectation of 



60 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

company, and an orderly vine grew at each 
side ; but our path led to the kitchen door 
at the house-end, and there grew a mass of 
gay flowers and greenery, as if they had 
been swept together by some diligent garden 
broom into a tangled heap : there were por- 
tulacas all along under the lower step and 
straggling off into the grass, and clustering 
mallows that crept as near as they dared, 
like poor relations. I saw the bright eyes 
and brainless little heads of two half -grown 
chickens who were snuggled down among 
the mallows as if they had been chased 
away from the door more than once, and ex- 
pected to be again. 

" It seems kind o' formal comin' in this 
way," said Mrs. Todd impulsively, as we 
passed the flowers and came to the front 
doorstep ; but she was mindful of the pro- 
prieties, and walked before us into the best 
room on the left. 

" Why, mother, if you have n't gone an* 
turned the carpet ! " she exclaimed, with 
something in her voice that spoke of awe 
and admiration. " When 'd you get to it ? 
I s'pose Mis' Addicks come over an' helped 
you, from White Island Landing ? " 

"No, she didn't," answered the old wo- 



GREEN ISLAND. 61 

man, standing proudly erect, and making 
the most of a great moment. '' I done it 
all myself with William's help. He had a 
spare day, an' took right holt with me ; an' 
't was all well beat on the grass, an' turned, 
an' put down again afore we went to bed. 
I ripped an' sewed over two o' them long 
breadths. I ain't had such a good night's 
sleep for two years." 

" There, what do you think o' havin' 
such a mother as that for eighty-six year 
old ? " said Mrs. Todd, standing before us 
like a large figure of Victory. 

As for the mother, she took on a sudden 
look of youth ; you felt as if she promised a 
great future, and was beginning, not ending, 
her summers and their happy toils. 

" My, my ! " exclaimed Mrs. Todd. " I 
could n't ha' done it myself, I 've got to 
own it." 

" I was much pleased to have it off my 
mind," said Mrs. Blackett, humbly ; " the 
more so because along at the first of the 
next week I was n't very well. I suppose it 
may have been the change of weather." 

Mrs. Todd could not resist a significant 
glance at me, but, with charming sympathy, 
she forbore to point the lesson or to connect 



62 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

this illness with its apparent cause. She 
loomed larger than ever in the little old- 
fashioned best room, with its few pieces of 
good furniture and pictures of national inter- 
est. The green paper curtains were stamped 
with conventional landscapes of a foreign 
order, — castles on inaccessible crags, and 
lovely lakes with steep wooded shores ; 
under-f oot the treasured carpet was covered 
thick with home-made rugs. There were 
empty glass lamps and crystallized bouquets 
of grass and some fine shells on the narrow 
mantelpiece. 

" I was married in this room," said Mrs. 
Todd unexpectedly ; and I heard her give a 
sigh after she had spoken, as if she could 
not help the touch of regret that would 
forever come with all her thoughts of hap- 
piness. 

" We stood right there between the win- 
dows," she added, " and the minister stood 
here. William would n't come in. He was 
always odd about seein' follis, just 's he is 
now. I run to meet 'em from a child, an' 
William, he 'd take an' run away." 

" I 've been the gainer," said the old 
mother cheerfully. " William has been son 
an' daughter both since you was married off 



GREEN ISLAND. 63 

the island. He 's been 'most too satisfied to 
stop at home 'long o' his old mother, but I 
always tell 'em I 'm the gainer." 

We were all moving toward the kitchen 
as if by common instinct. The best room 
was too suggestive of serious occasions, and 
the shades were all pulled down to shut out 
the summer light and air. It was indeed a 
tribute to Society to find a room set apart 
for her behests out there on so apparently 
neighborless and remote an island. After- 
noon visits and evening festivals must be 
few in such a bleak situation at certain sea- 
sons of the year, but Mrs. Blackett was of 
those who do not live to themselves, and who 
have long since passed the line that divides 
mere self-concern from a valued share in 
whatever Society can give and take. There 
were those of her neighbors who never had 
taken the trouble to furnish a best room, 
but Mrs. Blackett was one who knew the 
uses of a parlor. 

" Yes, do come right out into the old 
kitchen ; I shan't make any stranger of you," 
she invited us pleasantly, after we had been 
properly received in the room appointed to 
formality. " I expect Almiry, here, '11 be 
drif tin' out 'mongst the pasture-weeds quick 's 



64 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

she can find a good excuse. 'T is hot now. 
You 'd better content yourselves till you get 
nice an' rested, an' 'long after dinner the 
sea-breeze '11 spring up, an' then you can 
take your walks, an' go up an' see the pros- 
pect from the big ledge. Almiry '11 want to 
show off everything there is. Then I '11 get 
you a good cup o' tea before you start to go 
home. The days are plenty long now." 

While we were talking in the best room 
the selected fish had been mysteriously 
brought up from the shore, and lay all 
cleaned and ready in an earthen crock on 
the table. 

" I think William might have just stopped 
an' said a word," remarked Mrs. Todd, pout- 
ing with high affront as she caught sight of 
it. " He 's friendly enough when he comes 
ashore, an' was remarkable social the last 
time, for him." 

" He ain't disposed to be very social with 
the ladies," explained William's mother, 
with a delightful glance at me, as if she 
counted upon my friendship and tolerance. 
" He 's very particular, and he 's all in his 
old fishin'-clothes to-day. He '11 want me 
to tell him everything you said and done, 
after you 've gone. William has very deep 



GREEN ISLAND. ,65 

affections. He '11 want to see you, Almiry. 
Yes, I guess he '11 be in by an' by." 

" I '11 search for him by 'n' by, if he 
don't," proclaimed Mrs. Todd, with an air 
of unalterable resolution. "I know all of 
his burrows down 'long the shore. I '11 catch 
him by hand 'fore he knows it. I 've got 
some business with William, anyway. I 
brought forty-two cents with me that was 
due him for them last lobsters he brought 
in." 

"You can leave it with me," suggested 
the little old mother, who was already step- 
ping about among her pots and pans in the 
pantry, and preparing to make the chowder. 

I became possessed of a sudden unwonted 
curiosity in regard to William, and felt that 
half the pleasure of my visit would be lost 
if I could not make his interesting ac- 
quaintance. 



IX. 

WILLIAM. 

Mrs. Todd had taken the onion out of 
her basket and laid it down upon the kitchen 
table. " There 's Johnny Bowden come with 
us, you know," she reminded her mother. 
" He '11 be hungry enough to eat his size." 

" I 've got new doughnuts, dear," said the 
little old lady. " You don't often catch 
William 'n' me out o' provisions. I expect 
you might have chose a somewhat larger 
fish, but I '11 try an' make it do. I shall 
have to have a few extra potatoes, but 
there 's a field full out there, an' the hoe 's 
leanin' against the well-house, in 'mongst the 
climbin'-beans." She smiled, and gave her 
daughter a commanding nod. 

" Land sakes alive ! Le' 's blow the horn 
for William," insisted Mrs. Todd, with some 
excitement. " He need n't break his spirit 
so far 's to come in. He '11 know you need 
him for something particular, an' then we 



WILLIAM. 67 

can call to him as he comes up the path. I 
won't put him to no pain." 

Mrs. Blackett's old face, for the first time, 
wore a look of trouble, and I found it neces- 
sary to counteract the teasing spirit of Al- 
mira. It was too pleasant to stay indoors 
altogether, even in such rewarding com- 
panionship ; besides, I might meet William ; 
and, straying out presently, I found the hoe 
by the well-house and an old splint basket 
at the woodshed door, and also found my 
way down to the field where there was a 
great square patch of rough, weedy potato- 
tops and tall ragweed. One corner was 
already dug, and I chose a fat-looking hill 
where the tops were well withered. There is 
all the pleasure that one can have in gold- 
digging in finding one's hopes satisfied in 
the riches of a good hill of potatoes. I 
longed to go on ; but it did not seem frugal 
to dig any longer after my basket was full, 
and at last I took my hoe by the middle 
and lifted the basket to go back up the 
hill. I was sure that Mrs. Blackett must be 
waiting impatiently to slice the potatoes into 
the chowder, layer after layer, with the 
fish. 

" You let me take holt o' that basket, 



68 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

ma'am," said a pleasant, anxious voice 
behind me. 

I turned, startled in the silence of the 
wide field, and saw an elderly man, bent 
in the shoulders as fishermen often are, 
gray-headed and clean-shaven, and with a 
timid air. It was William. He looked just 
like his mother, and I had been imagining 
that he was large and stout like his sister, 
Almira Todd ; and, strange to say, my fancy 
had led me to picture him not far from 
thirty and a little loutish. It was necessary 
instead to pay William the respect due to 
age. 

I accustomed myself to plain facts on the 
instant, and we said good-morning like old 
friends. The basket was really heavy, and 
I put the hoe through its handle and offered 
him one end ; then we moved easily toward 
the house together, speaking of the fine 
weather and of mackerel which were re- 
ported to be striking in all about the bay. 
William had been out since three o'clock, 
and had taken an extra fare of fish. I could 
feel that Mrs. Todd's eyes were upon us as 
we approached the house, and although I 
fell behind in the narrow path, and let Wil- 
liam take the basket alone and precede me 



WILLIAM. 69 

at some little distance the rest of the way, I 
could plainly hear her greet him. 

" Got round to comin' in, did n't you ? '* 
she inquired, with amusement. " Well, now, 
that 's clever. Did n't know 's I should see 
you to-day, WiUiam, an' I wanted to settle 
an account." 

I felt somewhat disturbed and responsi- 
ble, but when I joined them they were on 
most simple and friendly terms. It became 
evident that, with William, it was the first 
step that cost, and that, ha\^ng once joined 
in social interests, he was able to pursue 
them with more or less pleasure. He was 
about sixty, and not young-looking for his 
years, yet so undying is the spirit of youth, 
and bashfulness has such a power of sur- 
vival, that I felt all the time as if one must 
try to make the occasion easy for some one 
who was young and new to the affairs of so- 
cial life. He asked politely if I would like 
to go up to the great ledge while dinner was 
getting ready ; so, not without a deep sense 
of pleasure, and a delighted look of surprise 
from the two hostesses, we started, William 
and I, as if both of us felt much younger 
than we looked. Such was the innocence 
and simplicity of the moment that when I 



70 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

heard Mrs. Todd laughing behind us in the 
kitchen I laughed too, but William did not 
even blush. I think he was a little deaf, 
and he stepped along before me most busi- 
nesslike and intent upon his errand. 

We went from the upper edge of the field 
above the house into a smooth, brown path 
among the dark spruces. The hot sun 
brought out the fragrance of the pitchy- 
bark, and the shade was pleasant as we 
climbed the hill. William stopj)ed once or 
twice to show me a great wasps'-nest close 
by, or some fishhawks'-nests below in a bit 
of swamp. He picked a few sprigs of late- 
blooming linnsea as we came out upon an 
open bit of pasture at the top of the island, 
and gave them to me without speaking, but 
he knew as well as I that one could not say- 
half he wished about linnsea. Through this 
piece of rough pasture ran a huge shape of 
stone like the great backbone of an enor- 
mous creature. At the end, near the woods, 
we could climb up on it and walk along to 
the highest point ; there above the circle of 
pointed firs we could look down over all the 
island, and could see the ocean that circled 
this and a hundred other bits of island- 
ground, the mainland shore and all the far 



WILLIAM. 



71 



horizons. It gave a sudden sense of space, 
for nothing stopped the eye or hedged one 
in, — that sense of liberty in space and time 
which great prospects always give. 

" There ain't no such view in the world, 
I expect," said William proudly, and I has- 
tened to speak my heartfelt tribute of praise ; 
it was impossible not to feel as if an un- 
traveled boy had spoken, and yet one loved 
to have him value his native heath. 



WHERE PENNYROYAL GREW. 

We were a little late to dinner, but Mrs. 
Blackett and Mrs. Todd were lenient, and 
we all took our places after William had 
paused to wash his hands, like a pious Brah- 
min, at the well, and put on a neat blue coat 
which he took from a peg behind the kitchen 
door. Then he resolutely asked a blessing 
in words that I could not hear, and we ate 
the chowder and were thankful. The kitten 
went round and round the table, quite erect, 
and, holding on by her fierce young claws, 
she stopped to mew with pathos at each 
elbow, or darted off to the open door when 
a song sparrow forgot himself and lit in the 
grass too near. William did not talk much, 
but his sister Todd occupied the time and 
told all the news there was to tell of Dunnet 
Landing and its coasts, while the old mother 
listened with delight. Her hospitality was 
something exquisite ; she had the gift which 



WHERE PENNYROYAL GREW. 73 

SO many women lack, of being able to make 
themselves and their houses belong entirely 
to a guest's pleasure, — that charming sur- 
render for the moment of themselves and 
whatever belongs to them, so that they make 
a part of one's own life that can never be 
forgotten. Tact is after all a kind of mind- 
reading, and my hostess held the golden 
gift. Sympathy is of the mind as well as 
the heart, and Mrs. Blackett's world and 
mine were one from the moment we met. 
Besides, she had that final, that highest 
gift of heaven, a perfect self-forgetfulness. 
Sometimes, as I watched her eager, sweet 
old face, I wondered why she had been set 
to shine on this lonely island of the north- 
ern coast. It must have been to keep the 
balance true, and make up to all her scat- 
tered and depending neighbors for other 
things which they may have lacked. 

When we had finished clearing away the 
old blue plates, and the kitten had taken 
care of her share of the fresh haddock, just 
as we were putting back the kitchen chairs 
in their places, Mrs. Todd said briskly that 
she must go up into the pasture now to 
gather the desired herbs. 

" You can stop here an' rest, or you can 



74 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

accompany me," she announced. " Mother 
ought to have her nap, and when we come 
back she an' William '11 sing for you. She 
admires music," said Mrs. Todd, turning to 
speak to her mother. 

But Mrs. Blackett tried to say that she 
could n't sing as she used, and perhaps Wil- 
liam would n't feel like it. She looked 
tired, the good old soul, or I should have 
liked to sit in the peaceful little house while 
she slept ; I had had much pleasant experi- 
ence of pastures already in her daughter's 
company. But it seemed best to go with 
Mrs. Todd, and off we went. 

Mrs. Todd carried the gingham bag which 
she had brought from home, and a small 
heavy burden in the bottom made it hang 
straight and slender from her hand. The 
way was steep, and she soon grew breathless, 
so that we sat down to rest awhile on a con- 
venient large stone among the bayberry. 

" There, I wanted you to see this, — 't is 
mother's picture," said Mrs. Todd ; " 't was 
taken once when she was up to Portland, soon 
after she was married. That 's me," she 
added, opening another worn case, and dis- 
playing the full face of the cheerful child she 
looked like still in spite of being past sixty. 



WHERE PENNYROYAL GREW. 75 

" And here 's William an' father together. 
I take after father, large and heavy, an' 
William is like mother's folks, short an' 
thin. He ought to have made something o' 
himself, bein' a man an' so like mother; but 
though he 's been very steady to work, an' 
kept up the farm, an' done his fishin' too 
right along, he never had mother's snap an' 
power o' seein' things just as they be. He 's 
got excellent judgment, too," meditated Wil- 
liam's sister, but she could not arrive at 
any satisfactory decision upon what she evi- 
dently thought his failure in life. " I think 
it is well to see any one so happy an' makin' 
the most of life just as it falls to hand," she 
said as she began to put the daguerreotypes 
away again ; but I reached out my hand to 
see her mother's once more, a most flower- 
like face of a lovely young woman in quaint 
dress. There was in the eyes a look of an- 
ticipation and joy, a far-off look that sought 
the horizon ; one often sees it in seafaring 
families, inherited by girls and boys alike 
from men who spend their lives at sea, and 
are always watching for distant sails or the 
first loom of the land. At sea there is no- 
thing to be seen close by, and this has its 
counterpart in a sailor's character, in the 



76 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

large and brave and patient traits that are 
developed, the hopeful pleasantness that one 
loves so in a seafarer. 

When the family pictures were wrapped 
again in a big handkerchief, we set forward 
in a narrow footpath and made our way to 
a lonely place that faced northward, where 
there was more pasturage and fewer bushes, 
and we went down to the edge of short grass 
above some rocky cliffs where the deep sea 
broke with a great noise, though the wind 
was down and the water looked quiet a little 
way from shore. Among the grass grew 
such pennyroyal as the rest of the world 
could not provide. There was a fine fra- 
grance in the air as we gathered it sprig by 
sprig and stepped along carefully, and Mrs. 
Todd pressed her aromatic nosegay between 
her hands and offered it to me again and 
again. i 

" There 's nothin' like it," she said ; " oh 
no, there 's no such penny r'yal as this in the 
State of Maine. It 's the right pattern of 
the plant, and all the rest I ever see is but 
an imitation. Don't it do you good ? " And 
I answered with enthusiasm. 

" There, dear, I never showed nobody else 
but mother where to find this place; 't is 



WHERE PENNYROYAL GREW. 77 

kind of sainted to me. Nathan, my hus- 
band, an' I used to love this place when we 
was courtin', and " - — she hesitated, and then 
spoke softly — "when he was lost, 't was 
just off shore tryin' to get in by the short 
channel out there between Squaw Islands, 
right in sight o' this headland where we 'd 
set an' made our plans all summer long." 

I had never heard her speak of her hus- 
band before, but I felt that we were friends 
now since she had brought me to this place. 

"'T was but a dream with us," Mrs. 
Todd said. " I knew it when he was gone. 
I knew it " — and she whispered as if she 
were at confession — "I knew it afore he 
started to go to sea. My heart was gone 
out o' my keepin' before I ever saw Nathan ; 
but he loved me well, and he made me real 
happy, and he died before he ever knew 
what he 'd had to know if we 'd lived long to- 
gether. 'T is very strange about love. No, 
Nathan never found out, but my heart was 
troubled when I knew him first. There 's 
more women likes to be loved than there is 
of those that loves. I spent some happy 
hours right here. I always liked Nathan, 
and he never knew. But this pennyr'yal 
always reminded me, as I 'd sit and gather 



78 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

it and hear liim talkin' — it always would 
remind me of — tlie other one." 

She looked away from me, and presently 
rose and went on by herself. Tliere was 
something lonely and solitary about her 
great determined shape. She might have 
been Antigone alone on the Theban plain. 
It is not often given in a noisy world to come 
to the places of great grief and silence. An 
absolute, archaic grief possessed this country- 
woman; she seemed like a renewal of some 
historic soul, with her sorrows and the re- 
moteness of a daily life busied with rustic 
simplicities and the scents of primeval herbs. 

I was not incompetent at herb-gathering, 
and after a while, when I had sat long enough 
waking myself to new thoughts, and reading 
a page of remembrance with new pleasure, 
I gathered some bunches, as I was bound 
to do, and at last we met again higher up 
the shore, in the plain every-day world we 
had left behind when we went down to the 
pennyroyal plot. As we walked together 
along the high edge of the field we saw a 
hundred sails about the bay and farther sea- 
ward ; it was mid-afternoon or after, and the 
day was coming to an end. 



WHERE PENNYROYAL GREW. 79 

" Yes, they 're all makin' towards the 
sliore, — the small craft an' the lobster 
smacks an' all," said my companion. " We 
must spend a little time with mother now, 
just to have our tea, an' then put for home." 

" No matter if we lose the wind at sun- 
down ; I can row in with Johnny," said I ; 
and Mrs. Todd nodded reassuringly and kept 
to her steady plod, not quickening her gait 
even when we saw William come round the 
corner of the house as if to look for us, and 
wave his hand and disappear. 

" Why, William 's right on deck ; I did n't 
know 's we should see any more of him ! " 
exclaimed Mrs. Todd. " Now mother '11 put 
the kettle right on ; she 's got a good fire 
goin'." I too could see the blue smoke 
thicken, and then we both walked a little 
faster, while Mrs. Todd groped in her fuU 
bag of herbs to find the daguerreotypes and. 
be ready to put them in their places. 



XI. 

THE OLD SINGERS. 

William was sitting on the side door step, 
and the old mother was busy making her 
tea ; she gave into my hand an old flowered- 
glass tea-caddy. 

" William thought you 'd like to see this, 
when he was settin' the table. My father 
brought it to my mother from the island of 
Tobago ; an' here 's a pair of beautiful mugs 
that came with it." She opened the glass 
door of a little cupboard beside the chimney. 
"These I call my best things, dear," she 
said. "You'd laugh to see how we enjoy 
'em Sunday nights in winter: we have a 
real company tea 'stead o' livin' right along 
just the same, an' I make some thin' good 
for a s'prise an' put on some o' my preserves, 
an' we get a-talkin' together an' have real 
pleasant times." 

Mrs. Todd laughed indulgently, and looked 
to see what I thought of such childishness. 



THE OLD SINGERS. 81 

"I wish I could be here some Sunday 
evening," said I. 

" William an' me '11 be talkin' about you 
an' thinkin' o' this nice day," said Mrs. 
Blackett affectionately, and she glanced at 
William, and he looked up bravely and 
nodded. I began to discover that he and 
his sister could not speak their deeper feel- 
ings before each other. 

"Now I want you an' mother to sing," 
said Mrs. Todd abruptly, with an air of 
command, and I gave William much sym- 
pathy in his evident distress. 

" After I 've had my cup o' tea, dear," 
answered the old hostess cheerfully ; and so 
we sat down and took our cups and made 
merry while they lasted. It was impossible 
not to wish to stay on forever at Green 
Island, and I could not help saying so. 

" I 'm very happy here, both winter an' 
summer," said old Mrs. Blackett. " William 
an' I never wish for any other home, do we, 
William ? I 'm glad you find it pleasant ; 
I wish you 'd come an' stay, dear, whenever 
you feel inclined. But here 's Almiry ; I 
always think Providence was kind to plot an' 
have her husband leave her a good house 
where she really belonged. She 'd been very 



82 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

restless if slie 'd had to continue here on 
Green Island. You wanted more scope, 
did n't you, Almiry, an' to live in a large 
place where more things grew ? Sometimes 
folks wonders that we don't live together ; 
perhaps we shall some time," and a shadow 
of sadness and apprehension flitted across 
her face. " The time o' sickness an' failin' 
has got to come to all. But Almiry 's got an 
herb that 's good for everything." She smiled 
as she spoke, and looked bright again. 

" There 's some herb that 's good for 
everybody, except for them that thinks 
they 're sick when they ain't," announced 
Mrs. Todd, with a truly professional air of 
finality. " Come, William, let 's have Sweet 
Home, an' then mother '11 sing Cupid an' the 
Bee for us." 

Then followed a most charming surprise. 
William mastered his timidity and began to 
sing. His voice was a little faint and frail, 
like the family daguerreotypes, but it was a 
tenor voice, and perfectly true and sweet. I 
have never heard Home, Sweet Home sung 
as touchingly and seriously as he sang it; 
he seemed to make it quite new ; and when 
he paused for a moment at the end of the 
first line and began the next, the old mother 



THE OLD SINGERS. 83 

joined him and they sang together, she miss- 
ing only the higher notes, where he seemed 
to lend his voice to hers for the moment and 
carry on her very note and air. It was the 
silent man's real and only means of expres- 
sion, and one could have listened forever, 
and have asked for more and more songs of 
old Scotch and English inheritance and the 
best that have lived from the ballad music 
of the war. Mrs. Todd kept time visibly, 
and sometimes audibly, with her ample foot. 
I saw the tears in her eyes sometimes, when 
I could see beyond the tears in mine. But 
at last the songs ended and the time came 
to say good-by ; it was the end of a great 
pleasure. 

Mrs. Blackett, the dear old lady, opened 
the door of her bedroom while Mrs. Todd 
was tying up the herb bag, and William had 
gone down to get the boat ready and to blow 
the horn for Johnny Bowden, who had 
joined a roving boat party who were off the 
shore lobstering. 

I went to the door of the bedroom, and 
thought how pleasant it looked, with its 
pink-and-white patchwork quilt and the 
brown unpainted paneling of its woodwork. 

" Come right in, dear," she said. " I want 



84 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

you to set down in my old quilted rockin'- 
chair there by the window ; you '11 say it 's 
the prettiest view in the house. I set there 
a good deal to rest me and when I want to 
read." 

There was a worn red Bible on the light- 
stand, and Mrs. Blackett's heavy silver- 
bowed glasses ; her thimble was on the nar- 
row window-ledge, and folded carefully on 
the table was a thick striped-cotton shirt 
that she was making for her son. Those 
dear old fingers and their loving stitches, 
that heart which had made the most of 
everything that needed love ! Here was the 
real home, the heart of the old house on 
Green Island ! I sat in the rocking-chair, 
and felt that it was a place of peace, the 
little brown bedroom, and the quiet outlook 
upon field and sea and sky. 

I looked up, and we understood each other 
without speaking. " I shall like to think o' 
your settin' here to-day," said Mrs. Black- 
ett. "I want you to come again. It has 
been so pleasant for William." 

The wind served us all the way home, and 
did not fall or let the sail slacken until we 
were close to the shore. We had a generous 
freight of lobsters in the boat, and new po- 



THE OLD SINGERS. 



85 



tatoes which William had put aboard, and 
what Mrs. Todd proudly called a full "kag" 
of prime number one salted mackerel ; and 
when we landed we had to make business 
arrangements to have these conveyed to her 
house in a wheelbarrow. 

I never shall forget the day at Green 
Island. The town of Dunnet Landing 
seemed large and noisy and oppressive as 
we came ashore. Such is the power of con- 
trast ; for the village was so still that I coidd 
hear the shy whippoorwills singing that 
night as I lay awake in my downstairs bed- 
room, and the scent of Mrs. Todd's herb 
garden under the window blew in again and 
again with every gentle rising of the sea- 
breeze. 



XII. 

A STKANGE SAIL. 

Except for a few stray guests, islanders 
or from the inland country, to whom Mrs. 
Todd offered the hospitalities of a single 
meal, we were quite by ourselves all sum- 
mer ; and when there were signs of invasion, 
late in July, and a certain Mrs. Fosdick ap- 
peared like a strange sail on the far hori- 
zon, I suffered much from apprehension, I 
had been living in the quaint little house 
with as much comfort and unconsciousness 
as if it were a larger body, or a double shell, 
in whose simple convolutions Mrs. Todd 
and I had secreted ourselves, until some 
wandering hermit crab of a visitor marked 
the little spare room for her own. Perhaps 
now and then a castaway on a lonely desert 
island dreads the thought of being rescued. 
I heard of Mrs. Fosdick for the first time 
with a selfish sense of objection ; but after 
all, I was still vacation-tenant of the school- 



A STRANGE SAIL. 87 

house, where I could always be alone, and 
it was impossible not to sympathize with 
Mrs. Todd, who, in spite of some prelimi- 
nary grumbling, was really delighted with 
the prospect of entertaining an old friend. 

For nearly a month we received occa- 
sional news of Mrs. Fosdick, who seemed to 
be making a royal progress from house to 
house in the inland neighborhood, after the 
fashion of Queen Elizabeth. One Sunday 
after another came and went, disappointing 
Mrs. Todd in the hope of seeing her guest 
at church and fixing the day for the great 
visit to begin ; but Mrs. Fosdick was not 
ready to commit herself to a date. An as- 
surance of " some time this week " was not 
sufficiently definite from a free-footed house- 
keeper's point of view, and Mrs. Todd put 
aside all herb-gathering plans, and went 
through the various stages of expectation, 
provocation, and despair. At last she was 
ready to believe that Mrs. Fosdick must 
have forgotten her promise and returned to 
her home, which was vaguely said to be over 
Thomaston way. But one evening, just as 
the supper-table was cleared and "readied 
up," and Mrs. Todd had put her large apron 
over her head and stepped forth for an even- 



88 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

ing stroll in the garden, the unexpected hap- 
pened. She heard the sound of wheels, and 
gave an excited cry to me, as I sat by the 
window, that Mrs. Fosdick was coming right 
up the street. 

" She may not be considerate, but she 's 
dreadful good company," said Mrs. Todd 
hastily, coming back a few steps from the 
neighborhood of the gate. " No, she ain't 
a mite considerate, but there 's a small lob- 
ster left over from your tea ; yes, it 's a real 
mercy there 's a lobster. Susan Fosdick 
might just as well have passed the compli- 
ment o' comin' an hour ago." 

" Perhaps she has had her supper," I 
ventured to suggest, sharing the house- 
keeper's anxiety, and meekly conscious of 
an inconsiderate appetite for my own supper 
after a long expedition up the bay. There 
were so few emergencies of any sort at 
Dunnet Landing that this one appeared 
overwhelming. 

" No, she 's rode 'way over from Nahum 
Brayton's place. I expect they were busy 
on the farm, and could n't spare the horse 
in proper season. You just sly out an' set 
the teakittle on again, dear, an' drop in a 
good han'f ul o' chips ; the fire 's all alive. 



A STRANGE SAIL. 89 

I '11 take her right up to lay off her things, 
an' she '11 be occupied with explanations an' 
gettin' her bunnit off, so you '11 have plenty 
o' time. She 's one I should n't like to have 
find me unprepared." 

Mrs. Fosdick was already at the gate, and 
Mrs. Todd now turned with an air of com- 
plete surprise and delight to welcome her. 

" Why, Susan Fosdick," I heard her ex- 
claim in a fine unhindered voice, as if she 
were calling across a field, " I come near giv- 
ing of you up ! I was afraid you 'd gone 
an' 'portioned out my visit to somebody else. 
I s'pose you 've been to supper? " 

"Lor', no, I ain't, Almiry Todd," said 
Mrs. Fosdick cheerfully, as she turned, laden 
with bags and bundles, from making her 
adieux to the boy driver. " I ain't had a 
mite o' supper, dear. I 've been lottin' all 
the way on a cup o' that best tea o' yourn, 
— some o' that Oolong you keep in the little 
chist. I don't want none o' your useful 
herbs." 

" I keep that tea for ministers' folks," 
gayly responded Mrs. Todd. " Come right 
along in, Susan Fosdick. I declare if you 
ain't the same old sixpence ! " 

As they came up the walk together, laugh- 



90 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

ing like girls, I fled, full of cares, to the 
kitchen, to brighten the fire and be sure that 
the lobster, sole dependence of a late sup- 
per, was well out of reach of the cat. There 
proved to be fine reserves of wild raspber- 
ries and bread and butter, so that I regained 
my composure, and waited impatiently for 
my own share of this illustrious visit to 
begin. There was an instant sense of high 
festivity in the evening air from the moment 
when our guest had so frankly demanded 
the Oolong tea. 

The great moment arrived. I was for- 
mally presented at the stair-foot, and the 
two friends passed on to the kitchen, where 
I soon heard a hospitable clink of crockery 
and the brisk stirring of a tea-cup. I sat in 
my high-backed rocking-chair by the win- 
dow in the front room with an unreasonable 
feeling of being left out, like the child who 
stood at the gate in Hans Andersen's story. 
Mrs. Fosdick did not look, at first sight, 
like a person of great social gifts. She was 
a serious-looking little bit of an old woman, 
with a birdlike nod of the head. I had 
often been told that she was the " best hand 
in the world to make a visit," — as if to 
visit were the highest of vocations ; that 



A STRANGE SAIL. 91 

everybody wished for her, while few could 
get her ; and I saw that Mrs. Todd felt 
a comfortable sense of distinction in being 
favored with the company of this eminent 
person who " knew just how." It was cer- 
tainly true that Mrs, Fosdick gave both her 
hostess and me a warm feeling of enjoyment 
and expectation, as if she had the power of 
social suggestion to all neighboring minds. 

The two friends did not reappear for at 
least an hour. I could hear their busy voices, 
loud and low by turns, as they ranged from 
public to confidential topics. At last Mrs. 
Todd kindly remembered me and returned, 
giving my door a ceremonious knock before 
she stepped in, with the small visitor in her 
wake. She reached behind her and took 
Mrs. Fosdick's hand as if she were young 
and bashful, and gave her a gentle pull for- 
ward. 

"There, I don't know whether you 're 
goin' to take to each other or not ; no, no- 
body can't tell whether you '11 suit each 
other, but I expect you '11 get along some 
way, both having seen the world," said our 
affectionate hostess. " You can inform Mis' 
Fosdick how we found the folks out to Green 
Island the other day. She 's always been 



92 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

well acquainted with mother. I 'II slip out 
now an' put away the supper things an' set 
my bread to rise, if you '11 both excuse me. 
You can come out an' keep me company 
when you get ready, either or both." And 
Mrs. Todd, large and amiable, disappeared 
and left us. 

Being furnished not only with a subject 
of conversation, but with a safe refuge in 
the kitchen in case of incompatibility, Mrs. 
Fosdick and I sat down, prepared to make 
the best of each other. I soon discovered 
that she, like many of the elder women of 
that coast, had spent a part of her life at 
sea, and was full of a good traveler's curi- 
osity and enlightenment. By the time we 
thought it discreet to join our hostess we 
were already sincere friends. 

You may speak of a visit's setting in as 
well as a tide's, and it was impossible, as 
Mrs. Todd whispered to me, not to be pleased 
at the way this visit was setting in ; a new 
impulse and refreshing of the social cur- 
rents and seldom visited bays of memory 
appeared to have begun. Mrs. Fosdick had 
been the mother of a large family of sons 
and daughters, — sailors and sailors' wives, 
— and most of them had died before her. 



A STRANGE SAIL. 93 

I soon grew more or less acquainted with 
the histories of all their fortunes and mis- 
fortunes, and subjects of an intimate nature 
were no more withheld from my ears than if 
I had been a shell on the mantelpiece. Mrs. 
Fosdick was not without a touch of dignity 
and elegance ; she was fashionable in her 
dress, but it was a curiously well-preserved 
provincial fashion of some years back. In 
a wider sphere one might have called her a 
woman of the world, with her unexpected 
bits of modern knowledge, but Mrs. Todd's 
wisdom was an intimation of truth itself. 
She might belong to any age, like an idyl of 
Theocritus ; but while she always understood 
Mrs. Fosdick, that entertaining pilgrim could 
not always understand Mrs. Todd. 

That very first evening my friends plunged 
into a borderless sea of reminiscences and 
personal news. Mrs. Fosdick had been stay- 
ing with a family who owned the farm 
where she was born, and she had visited 
every sunny knoll and shady field corner; 
but when she said that it might be for the 
last time, I detected in her tone something 
expectant of the contradiction which Mrs. 
Todd promptly offered. 



94 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" Almirj,*' said Mrs. Fosdick, with sad- 
ness, " you may say what you like, but I 
am one of nine brothers and sisters brought 
up on the old place, and we 're all dead but 
me." 

" Your sister Dailey ain't gone, is she ? 
Why, no, Louisa ain't gone ! " exclaimed 
Mrs. Todd, with surprise. " Why, I never 
heard of that occurrence ! " 

" Yes 'm ; she passed away last October, 
in Lynn. She had made her distant home 
in Vermont State, but she was making a 
visit to her youngest daughter. Louisa was 
the only one of my family whose funeral I 
was n't able to attend, but 't was a mere 
accident. All the rest of us were settled 
right about home. I thought it was very 
slack of 'em in Lynn not to fetch her to the 
old place ; but when I came to hear about 
it, I learned that they 'd recently put up a 
very elegant monument, and my sister Dailey 
was always great for show. She 'd just been 
out to see the monument the week before she 
was taken down, and admired it so much 
that they felt sure of her wishes." 

" So she 's really gone, and the funeral 
was up to Lynn ! " repeated Mrs. Todd, as 
if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. 



A STRANGE SAIL. 



95 



*' She was some years younger than we be, 
too. I recollect the first day she ever came 
to school ; 't was that first year mother sent 
me inshore to stay with aunt Topham's folks 
and get my schooling. You fetched little 
Louisa to school one Monday mornin' in a 
pink dress an' her long curls, and she set 
between you an' me, and got cryin' after a 
while, so the teacher sent us home with her 
at recess." 

" She was scared of seeing so many chil- 
dren about her ; there was only her and me 
and brother John at home then ; the older 
boys were to sea with father, an' the rest of 
us wa'n't born," explained Mrs. Fosdick. 
" That next fall we all went to sea together. 
Mother was uncertain till the last minute, as 
one may say. The ship was waiting orders, 
but the baby that then was, was born just 
in time, and there was a long spell of extra 
bad weather, so mother got about again be- 
fore they had to sail, an' we all went. I 
remember my clothes were all left ashore 
in the east chamber in a basket where 
mother 'd took them out o' my chist o' 
drawers an' left 'em ready to carry aboard. 
She didn't have nothing aboard, of her own, 
that she wanted to cut up for me, so when 



96 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIBS, 

my dress wore out she just put me into a 
spare suit o' John's, jacket and trousers. I 
was n't but eight years old an' he was most 
seven and large of his age. Quick as we 
made a port she went right ashore an' fitted 
me out pretty, but we was bound for the East 
Indies and did n't put in anywhere for a good 
while. So I had quite a spell o' freedom. 
Mother made my new skirt long because I 
was growing, and I poked about the deck 
after that, real discouraged, feeling the hem 
at my heels every minute, and as if youth 
was past and gone. I liked the trousers best ; 
I used to climb the riggin' with 'em and 
frighten mother till she said an' vowed she 'd 
never take me to sea again. 

I thought by the polite absent-minded 
smile on Mrs. Todd's face this was no new 
story. 

" Little Louisa was a beautiful child ; yes, 
I always thought Louisa was very pretty," 
Mrs. Todd said. " She was a dear little girl 
in those days. She favored your mother; 
the rest of you took after your father's 
folks." 

" We did certain," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, 
rocking steadily. " There, it does seem so 
pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance 



A STRANGE SAIL. 97 

that knows what you know. I see so many 
of these new folks nowadays, that seem to 
have neither past nor future. Conversation 's 
got to have some root in the past, or else 
you Ve got to explain every remark you 
make, an' it wears a person out." 

Mrs. Todd gave a funny little laugh. 
" Yes 'm, old friends is always best, 'less you 
can catch a new one that 's fit to make an 
old one out of," she said, and we gave an 
affectionate glance at each other which" Mrs. 
Fosdick could not have understood, being 
the latest comer to the house. 



XIII. 

POOR JOANNA. 

One evening my ears caught a mysterious 
allusion which Mrs. Todd made to Shell- 
heap Island. It was a chilly night of cold 
northeasterly rain, and I made a fire for the 
first time in the Franklin stove in my room, 
and begged my two housemates to come in 
and keep me company. The weather had 
convinced Mrs. Todd that it was time to 
make a supply of cough-drops, and she had 
been bringing forth herbs from dark and dry 
hiding-places, until now the pungent dust 
and odor of them had resolved themselves 
into one mighty flavor of spearmint that 
came from a simmering caldron of syrup in 
the kitchen. She called it done, and well 
done, and had ostentatiously left it to cool, 
and taken her knitting-work because Mrs. 
Fosdick was busy with hers. They sat in 
the two rocking-chairs, the small woman and 
the large one, but now and then I could see 



POOR JOANNA, 99 

that Mrs. Todd's thoughts remained with 
the cough-drops. The time of gathering 
herbs was nearly over, but the time of syrups 
and cordials had begun. 

The heat of the open fire made us a little 
drowsy, but something in the way Mrs. Todd 
spoke of Shell-heap Island waked my inter- 
est. I waited to see if she would say any 
more, and then took a roundabout way back 
to the subject by saying what was first in 
my mind : that I wished the Green Island 
family were there to spend the evening with 
us, — Mrs. Todd's mother and her brother 
William. 

Mrs. Todd smiled, and drummed on the 
arm of the rocking-chair. " Might scare 
William to death," she warned me ; and 
Mrs. Fosdick mentioned her intention of 
going out to Green Island to stay two or 
three days, if this wind did n't make too 
much sea. 

"Where is Shell-heap Island?" I ven- 
tured to ask, seizing the opportunity. 

" Bears nor'east somewheres about three 
miles from Green Island ; right off-shore, I 
should call it about eight miles out," said 
Mrs. Todd. "You never was there, dear; 
't is off the thoroughfares, and a very bad 
place to land at best." 



100 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" I should think 't was," agreed Mrs. Fos- 
dick, smoothing down her black silk apron. 
" 'T is a j)lace worth visitin' when you once 
get there. Some o' the old folks was kind 
o' fearful about it. 'T was 'counted a great 
place in old Indian times ; you can pick up 
their stone tools 'most any time if you hunt 
about. There 's a beautiful spring 'o water, 
too. Yes, I remember when they used to 
tell queer stories about Shell-heap Island. 
Some said 't was a great bangeing-place for 
the Indians, and an old chief resided there 
once that ruled the winds ; and others said 
they 'd always heard that once the Indians 
come down from up country an' left a cap- 
tive there without any bo't, an' 't was too 
far to swim across to Black Island, so called, 
an' he lived there till he perished." 

" I 've heard say he walked the island after 
that, and sharp-sighted folks could see him 
an' lose him like one o' them citizens Cap'n 
Littlepage was acquainted with up to the 
north pole," announced Mrs. Todd grimly. 
" Anyway, there was Indians, — you can see 
their shell-heap that named the island ; and 
I 've heard myself that 't was one o' their 
cannibal places, but I never could believe it. 
There never was no cannibals on the coast 'o 



POOR JOANNA. 101 

Maine. All the Indians o' these regions are 
tame-looking folks." 

'^ Sakes alive, yes I " exclaimed Mrs. Fos- 
dick. " Ought to see them painted savages 
I 've seen when I was young out in the 
South Sea Islands ! That was the time for 
folks to travel, 'way back in the old whaliu' 
days ! " 

" Whalin' must have been dull for a lady, 
hardly ever makin' a lively port, and not 
takin' in any mixed cargoes," said Mrs. 
Todd. "I never desired to go a whalin' 
v'y'ge myself." 

" I used to return f eelin' very slack an' 
behind the times, 't is true," explained Mrs. 
Fosdick, " but 't was excitin', an' we always 
done extra well, and felt rich when we did 
get ashore. I liked the variety. There, 
how times have changed ; how few seafarin' 
families there are left ! What a lot o' queer 
folks there used to be about here, anyway, 
when we was young, Almiry. Everybody 's 
just like everybody else, now; nobody to 
laugh about, and nobody to cry about." 

It seemed to me that there were peculi- 
arities of character in the region of Dunnet 
Landing yet, but I did not like to interrupt. 

" Yes," said Mrs. Todd after a moment of 



102 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

meditation, " there was certain a good many 
curiosities of human natur' in this neighbor- 
hood years ago. There was more energy 
then, and in some the energy took a singu- 
lar turn. In these days the young folks is 
all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they won't be 
all just alike ; as for the old folks, they pray 
for the advantage o' bein' a little different." 

*' I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great 
many years," said Mrs. Fosdick, laughing ; 
" 't was a favorite term o' my grandmother's. 
No, I wa'n't thinking o' those things, but of 
them strange straying creatur's that used to 
rove the country. You don't see them now, 
or the ones that used to hive away in their 
own houses with some strange notion or 
other." 

I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but 
my companions were not reminded of his 
name ; and there was brother William at 
Green Island, whom we all three knew. 

" I was talking o' poor Joanna the other 
day. I had n't thought of her for a great 
while," said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. " Mis' 
Brayton an' I recalled her as we sat together 
sewing. She was one o' your peculiar per- 
sons, wa'n't she ? Speaking of such persons," 
she turned to explain to me, " there was a 



POOR JOANNA. 



103 



sort of a nun or hermit person lived out 
there for years all alone on Shell-heap 
Island. Miss Joanna Todd, her name was, 
— a cousin o' Almiry's late husband." 

I expressed my interest, but as I glanced 
at Mrs. Todd I saw that she was confused 
by sudden affectionate feeling and unmis- 
takable desire for reticence. 

" I never want to hear Joanna laughed 
about," she said anxiously. 

" Nor I," answered Mrs. Fosdick reassur- 
ingly. "She was crossed in love, — that 
was all the matter to begin with ; but as I 
look back, I can see that Joanna was one 
doomed from the first to fall into a melan- 
choly. She retired from the world for good 
an' all, though she was a well-off woman. 
All she wanted was to get away from folks ; 
she thought she was n't fit to live with any- 
body, and wanted to be free. Shell-heap 
Island come to her from her father, and first 
thing folks knew she 'd gone off out there 
to live, and left word she did n't want no 
company. 'T was a bad place to get to, un- 
less the wind an' tide were just right ; 't was 
hard work to make a landing." 

" What time of year was this? " I asked. 
"Very late in the summer," said Mrs. 



104 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS> 

Fosdick. " No, I never could laugh at Jo- 
anna, as some did. She set everything by 
the young man, an' they were going to marry 
in about a month, when he got bewitched 
with a girl 'way up the bay, and married 
her, and went off to Massachusetts. He 
was n't well thought of, — there were those 
who thought Joanna's money was what had 
tempted him ; but she 'd given him her 
whole heart, an' she wa'n't so young as she 
had been. All her hopes were built on 
marry in', an' havin' a real home and some- 
body to look to; she acted just like a bird 
when its nest is spoilt. The day after she 
heard the news she was in dreadful woe, but 
the next she came to herself very quiet, and 
took the horse and wagon, and drove four- 
teen miles to the lawyer's, and signed a 
paper givin' her half of the farm to her 
brother. They never had got along very- 
well together, but he did n't want to sign it, 
till she acted so distressed that he gave in. 
Edward Todd's wife was a good woman, who 
felt very bad indeed, and used every argu- 
ment with Joanna ; but Joanna took a poor 
old boat that had been her father's and 
lo'ded in a few things, and off she put all 
alone, with a good land breeze, right out to 



POOR JOANNA. 105 

sea. Edward Todd ran down to the beacli, 
an' stood there cryin' like a boy to see her 
go, but she was out o' hear in'. She never 
stepped foot on the mainland again long as 
she lived." 

" How large an island is it ? How did 
she manage in winter? " I asked. 

"Perhaps thirty acres, rocks and all," 
answered Mrs. Todd, taking up the story 
gravely. " There can't be much of it that 
the salt spray don't fly over in storms. No, 
'tis a dreadful small place to make a world- 
of ; it has a different look from any of the 
other islands, but there 's a sheltered cove 
on the south side, with mud-flats across one 
end of it at low water where there 's excel- 
lent clams, and the big shell-heap keeps 
some o' the wind off a little house her father 
took the trouble to build when he was a 
young man. They said there was an old 
house built o' logs there before that, with a 
kind of natural cellar in the rock under it. 
He used to stay out there days to a time, 
and anchor a little sloop he had, and dig 
clams to fill it, and sail up to Portland. 
They said the dealers always gave him an 
extra price, the clams were so noted. Joanna 
used to go out and stay with him. They 



106 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

were always great companions, so slie knew 
just what 't was out there. There was a few 
sheep that belonged to her brother an' her, 
but she bargained for him to come and get 
them on the edge o' cold weather. Yes, she 
desired him to come for the sheep ; an' his 
wife thought perhaps Joanna 'd return, but 
he said no, an' lo'ded the bo't with warm 
things an' what he thought she 'd need 
through the winter. He come home with 
the sheep an' left the other things by the 
house, but she never so much as looked out 
o' the window. She done it for a penance. 
She must have wanted to see Edward by 
that time." 

Mrs. Fosdick was fidgeting with eager- 
ness to speak. 

" Some thought the first cold snap would 
set her ashore, but she always remained," 
concluded Mrs. Todd soberly. 

" Talk about the men not having any 
curiosity ! " exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick scorn- 
fully. " Why, the waters round Shell-heap 
Island were white with sails all that fall. 
'Twas never called no great of a fishin'- 
ground before. Many of 'em made excuse 
to go ashore to get water at the spring ; but 
at last she spoke to a bo't-load, very digni- 



POOR JOANNA. 107 

fied and calm, and said that she 'd like it 
better if they 'd make a practice of getting 
water to Black Island or somewheres else 
and leave her alone, except in case of acci- 
dent or trouble. But there was one man 
who had always set everything by her from 
a boy. He 'd have married her if the other 
had n't come about an' spoilt his chance, 
and he used to get close to the island, before 
light, on his way out fishin', and throw a 
little bundle 'way up the green slope front 
o' the house. His sister told me she hap- 
pened to see, the first time, what a pretty 
choice he made o' useful things that a woman 
would feel lost without. He stood off fish- 
in', and could see them in the grass all day, 
though sometimes she 'd come out and walk 
right by them. There was other bo'ts near, 
out after mackerel. But early next morning 
his present was gone. He did n't presume 
too much, but once he took her a nice firkin 
o' things he got up to Portland, and when 
spring come he landed her a hen and chick- 
ens in a nice little coop. There was a good 
many old friends had Joanna on their 
minds." 

"Yes," said Mrs. Todd, losing her sad 
reserve in the growing sympathy of these 



108 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

reminiscences. "How everybody used to 
notice whether there was smoke out of the 
chimney I The Black Island folks could see 
her with their spy-glass, and if they 'd ever 
missed getting some sign o' life they 'd have 
sent notice to her folks. But after the first 
year or two Joanna was more and more for- 
gotten as an every-day charge. Folks lived 
very simple in those days, you know," she 
continued, as Mrs. Fosdick's knitting was 
taking much thought at the moment. " I 
expect there was always plenty of driftwood 
thrown up, and a poor failin' patch of 
spruces covered all the north side of the 
island, so she always had something to burn. 
She was very fond of workin' in the garden 
ashore, and that first summer she began to 
till the little field out there, and raised a 
nice parcel o' potatoes. She could fish, o' 
course, and there was all her clams an' lob- 
sters. You can always live well in any wild 
place by the sea when you 'd starve to death 
up country, except 't was berry time. Jo- 
anna had berries out there, blackberries at 
least, and there was a few herbs in case she 
needed them. Mullein in great quantities 
and a plant o' wormwood I remember seeing 
once when I stayed there, long before she 



POOR JOANNA. 109 

fled out to Shell-heap. Yes, I recall the 
wormwood, which is always a planted herb, so 
there must have been folks there before the 
Todds' day. A growin' bush makes the best 
gravestone ; I expect that wormwood always 
stood for somebody's solemn monument. 
Catnip, too, is a very endurin' herb about an 
old place." 

" But what I want to know is what she 
did for other things," interrupted Mrs. Fos- 
dick. " Almiry, what did she do for cloth- 
in' when she needed to replenish, or risin' 
for her bread, or the piece-bag that no wo- 
man can live long without ? " 

" Or company," suggested Mrs. Todd. 
" Joanna was one that loved her friends. 
There must have been a terrible sight o' 
long winter evenin's that first year." 

"There was her hens," suggested Mrs. 
Fosdick, after reviewing the melancholy sit- 
uation. " She never wanted the sheep after 
that first season. There wa'n't no proper 
pasture for sheep after the June grass was 
past, and she ascertained the fact and 
could n't bear to see them suffer ; but the 
chickens done well. I remember sailin' by 
one spring afternoon, an' seein' the coops out 
front o' the house in the sun. How long 



110 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

was it before you went out with the minis- 
ter? You were the first ones that ever 
really got ashore to see Joanna." 

I had been reflecting upon a state of 
society which admitted such personal free- 
dom and a voluntary hermitage. There was 
something mediaeval in the behavior of poor 
Joanna Todd under a disappointment of the 
heart. The two women had drawn closer 
together, and were talking on, quite uncon- 
scious of a listener. 

" Poor Joanna ! " said Mrs. Todd again, 
and sadly shook her head as if there were 
things one could not speak about. 

" I called her a great fool," declared Mrs. 
Fosdick, with spirit, " but I pitied her then, 
and I pity her far more now. Some other 
minister would have been a great help to 
her, — - one that preached self-f orgetf ulness 
and doin' for others to cure our own ills ; 
but Parson Dimmick was a vague person, 
well meanin', but very numb in his feelin's. 
I don't suppose at that troubled time Joanna 
could think of any way to mend her troubles 
except to run off and hide." 

" Mother used to say she did n't see how 
Joanna lived without having nobody to do 
for, getting her own meals and tending her 



POOR JOANNA. Ill 

own poor self day in an' day out," said Mrs. 
Todd sorrowfully. 

" There was the hens," repeated Mrs. Fos- 
dick kindly. "I expect she soon came to 
makin' folks o' them. No, I never went to 
work to blame Joanna, as some did. She 
was full o' feeling, and her troubles hurt her 
more than she could bear. I see it all now 
as I could n't when I was young." 

" I suppose in old times they had their 
shut-up convents for just such folks," said 
Mrs. Todd, as if she and her friend had dis- 
agreed about Joanna once, and were now in 
happy harmony. She seemed to speak with 
new openness and freedom. " Oh yes, I was 
only too pleased when the Eeverend Mr. 
Dimmick invited me to go out with him. 
He had n't been very long in the place when 
Joanna left home and friends. 'T was one 
day that next summer after she went, and I 
had been married early in the spring. He 
felt that he ought to go out and visit her. 
She was a member of the church, and might 
wish to have him consider her spiritual state. 
I wa'n't so sure o' that, but I always liked 
Joanna, and I 'd come to be her cousin by 
marriage. Nathan an' I had conversed about 
goin' out to pay her a visit, but he got his 



112 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

chance to sail sooner 'n he expected. He 
always thought everything of her, and last 
time he come home, knowing nothing of her 
change, he brought her a beautiful coral pin 
from a port he 'd touched at somewheres up 
the Mediterranean. So I wrapped the little 
box in a nice piece of paper and put it in 
my pocket, and picked her a bunch of fresh 
lemon balm, and off we started." 

Mrs. Fosdick laughed. " I remember 
hearin' about your trials on the v'y'ge," she 
said. 

" Why, yes," continued Mrs. Todd in her 
company manner. " I picked her the balm, 
an' we started. Why, yes, Susan, the min- 
ister liked to have cost me my life that day. 
He would fasten the sheet, though I advised 
against it. He said the rope was rough an' 
cut his hand. There was a fresh breeze, an' 
he went on talking rather high flown, an' I 
felt some interested. All of a sudden there 
come up a gust, and he give a screech and 
stood right up and called for help, 'way out 
there to sea. I knocked him right over into 
the bottom o' the bo't, getting by to catch 
hold of the sheet an' untie it. He was n't 
but a little man ; I helped him right up 
after the squall passed, and made a hand- 



POOR JOANNA. 113 

some apology to him, but he did act kind o' 
offended." 

*' I do think they ought not to settle them 
landlocked folks in parishes where they 're 
liable to be on the water," insisted Mrs. Fos- 
dick. " Think of the families in our parish 
that was scattered all about the bay, and 
what a sight o' sails you used to see, in Mr. 
Dimmick's day, standing across to the main- 
land on a pleasant Sunday morning, filled 
with church-going folks, all sure to want 
him some time or other ! You could n't find 
no doctor that would stand up in the boat 
and screech if a flaw struck her." 

"Old Dr. Bennett had a beautiful sail- 
boat, did n't he ? " responded Mrs. Todd. 
" And how well he used to brave the weather ! 
Mother always said that in time o' trouble that 
tall white sail used to look like an angel's 
wing comin' over the sea to them that was 
in pain. Well, there 's a difference in gifts. 
Mr. Dimmick was not without light." 

" 'T was light o' the moon, then," snapped 
Mrs. Fosdick ; " he was pompous enough, 
but I never could remember a single word 
he said. There, go on, Mis' Todd ; I forget 
a great deal about that day you went to see 
poor Joanna." 



114 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" I felt she saw us coming, and knew us a 
great way off ; yes, I seemed to feel it within 
me," said our friend, laying down her knit- 
ting. " I kept my seat, and took the bo't 
inshore without saying a word ; there was a 
short channel that I was sure Mr. Dimmick 
was n't acquainted with, and the tide was 
very low. She never came out to warn us 
off nor anything, and I thought, as I hauled 
the bo't up on a wave and let the Reverend 
Mr. Dimmick step out, that it was some- 
thin' gained to be safe ashore. There was a 
little smoke out o' the chimney o' Joanna's 
house, and it did look sort of homelike and 
pleasant with wild mornin'-glory vines trained 
up ; an' there was a plot o' flowers under the 
front window, portulacas and things. I be- 
lieve she 'd made a garden once, when she 
was stopping there with her father, and 
some things must have seeded in. It looked 
as if she might have gone over to the other 
side of the island. 'T was neat and pretty 
all about the house, and a lovely day in July. 
We walked up from the beach together very 
sedate, and I felt for poor Nathan's little 
pin to see if 't was safe in my dress pocket. 
All of a sudden Joanna come right to the 
fore door and stood there, not sayin' a word. 



XIV. 

THE HERMITAGE. 

My companions and I had been so intent 
upon the subject of the conversation that 
we had not heard any one open the gate, but 
at this moment, above the noise of the rain, 
we heard a loud knocking. We were all 
startled as we sat by the fire, and Mrs. Todd 
rose hastily and went to answer the call, 
leaving her rocking-chair in violent mo- 
tion. Mrs. Fosdick and I heard an anxious 
voice at the door speaking of a sick child, 
and Mrs. Todd's kind, motherly voice in- 
viting the messenger in : then we waited in 
silence. There was a sound of heavy drop- 
ping of rain from the eaves, and the distant 
roar and undertone of the sea. My thoughts 
flew back to the lonely woman on her outer 
island; what separation from humankind 
she must have felt, what terror and sadness, 
even in a summer storm like this ! 

" You send right after the doctor if she 



116 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

ain't better in half an hour," said Mrs. Todd 
to her worried customer as they parted ; and 
I felt a warm sense of comfort in the evi- 
dent resources of even so small a neighbor- 
hood, but for the poor hermit Joanna there 
was no neighbor on a winter night. 

"How did she look?" demanded Mrs. 
Fosdick, without preface, as our large host- 
ess returned to the little room with a mist 
about her from standing long in the wet door- 
way, and the sudden draught of her coming 
beat out the smoke and flame from the Frank- 
lin stove. " How did poor Joanna look ? " 

"She was the same as ever, except I 
thought she looked smaller," answered Mrs. 
Todd after thinking a moment ; perhaps it 
was only a last considering thought about 
her patient. " Yes, she was just the same, 
and looked very nice, Joanna did. I had 
been married since she left home, an' she 
treated me like her own folks. I expected 
she 'd look strange, with her hair turned 
gray in a night or somethin', but she wore 
a pretty gingham dress I 'd often seen her 
wear before she went away ; she must have 
kept it nice for best in the afternoons. She 
always had beautiful, quiet manners. I re- 



THE HERMITAGE. HT 

member she waited till we were close to her, 
and then kissed me real affectionate, and in- 
quired for Nathan before she shook hands 
with the minister, and then she invited us 
both in. 'Twas the same little house her 
father had built him when he was a bach- 
elor, with one livin'-room, and a little mite 
of a bedroom out of it where she slept, but 
't was neat as a ship's cabin. There was 
some old chairs, an' a seat made of a long 
box that might have held boat tackle an' 
things to lock up in his fishin' days, and a 
good enough stove so anybody could cook 
and keep warm in cold weather. I went 
over once from home and stayed 'most a 
week with Joanna when we was girls, and 
those young happy days rose up before me. 
Her father was busy all day fishin' or clam- 
min' ; he was one o' the pleasantest men in 
the world, but Joanna's mother had the grim 
streak, and never knew what 't was to be 
happy. The first minute my eyes fell upon 
Joanna's face that day I saw how she had 
ffrown to look like Mis' Todd. 'T was the 
mother right over again." 

" Oh dear me ! " said Mrs. Fosdick. 

'' Joanna had done one thing very pretty. 
There was a little piece o' swamp on the 



118 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

island where good rushes grew plenty, and 
she 'd gathered 'em, and braided some beauti- 
ful mats for the floor and a thick cushion 
for the long bunk. She 'd showed a good 
deal of invention ; you see there was a nice 
chance to pick up pieces o' wood and boards 
that drove ashore, and she 'd made good use 
o' what she found. There was n't no clock, 
but she had a few dishes on a shelf, and 
flowers set about in shells fixed to the walls, so 
it did look sort of homelike, though so lonely 
and poor. I could n't keep the tears out o' 
my eyes, I felt so sad. I said to myself, I 
must get mother to come over an' see Joanna ; 
the love in mother's heart would warm her, 
an' she might be able to advise." 

" Oh no, Joanna was dreadful stern," said 
Mrs. Fosdick. 

" We were all settin' down very proper, 
but Joanna would keep stealin' glances at 
me as if she was glad I come. She had but 
little to say ; she was real polite an' gentle, 
and yet forbiddin'. The minister found it 
hard," confessed Mrs. Todd ; " he got em- 
barrassed, an' when he put on his authority 
and asked her if she felt to enjoy religion in 
her present situation, an' she replied that 
she must be excused from answerin', I 



THE HERMITAGE. 119 

thought I should fly. She might have made 
it easier for him; after all, he was the 
minister and had taken some trouble to come 
out, though 't was kind of cold an' unfeelin' 
the way he inquired. I thought he might 
have seen the little old Bible a-layin' on the 
shelf close by him, an' I wished he knew 
enough to just lay his hand on it an' read 
somethin' kind an' fatherly 'stead of accusin' 
her, an' then given poor Joanna his blessin' 
with the hope she might be led to comfort. 
He did offer prayer, but 'twas all about 
hearin' the voice o' God out o' the whirl- 
wind ; and I thought while he was goin' on 
that anybody that had spent the long cold 
winter all alone out on Shell-heap Island 
knew a good deal more about those things 
than he did. I got so provoked I opened 
my eyes and stared right at him. 

" She did n't take no notice, she kep' a 
nice respectful manner towards him, and 
when there come a pause she asked if he 
had any interest about the old Indian re- 
mains, and took down some queer stone 
gouges and hammers off of one of her shelves 
and showed them to him same 's if he was a 
boy. He remarked that he 'd like to walk 
over an' see the shell-heap ; so she went 



120 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

right to the door and pointed him the way. 
I see then that she 'd made her some kind o' 
sandal-shoes out o' the fine rushes to wear on 
her feet ; she stepped light an' nice in 'em 
as shoes." 

Mrs. Fosdick leaned back in her rocking- 
chair and gave a heavy sigh. 

" I did n't move at first, but I 'd held out 
just as long as I could," said Mrs. Todd, 
whose voice trembled a little. " When Jo- 
anna returned from the door, an' I could 
see that man's stupid back departin' among 
the wild rose bushes, I just ran to her an' 
caught her in my arms. I was n't so big as 
I be now, and she was older than me, but I 
hugged her tight, just as if she was a child. 
' Oh, Joanna dear,' I says, ' won't you come 
ashore an' live 'long o' me at the Landin', or 
go over to Green Island to mother's when 
winter comes? Nobody shall trouble you, 
an' mother finds it hard bein' alone. I can't 
bear to leave you here' — and I burst right 
out crying. I 'd had my own trials, young 
as I was, an' she knew it. Oh, I did entreat 
her ; yes, I entreated Joanna." 

" What did she say then ? " asked Mrs. 
Fosdick, much moved. 

" She looked the same way, sad an' remote 



THE HERMITAGE. 121 

through it all," said Mrs. Todd mournfully. 
" She took hold of my hand, and we sat 
down close together ; 't was as if she turned 
round an' made a child of me. ' I have n't 
got no right to live with folks no more,' she 
said. ' You must never ask me again, Al- 
miry : I 've done the only thing I could do, 
and I 've made my choice. I feel a great 
comfort in your kindness, but I don't deserve 
it. I have committed the unpardonable sin ; 
you don't understand,' says she humbly. 
' I was in great wrath and trouble, and my 
thoughts was so wicked towards God that I 
can't expect ever to be forgiven. I have 
come to know what it is to have patience, 
but I have lost my hope. You must tell 
those that ask how 't is with me,' she said, 
' an' tell them I want to be alone.' I could n't 
speak ; no, there wa'n't anything I could say, 
she seemed so above everything common. I 
was a good deal younger then than I be 
now, and I got Nathan's little coral pin out 
o' my pocket and put it into her hand ; and 
when she saw it and I told her where it come 
from, her face did really light ujo for a 
minute, sort of bright an' pleasant. ' Nathan 
an' I was always good friends ; I 'm glad he 
don't think hard of me,' says she. ' I want 



122 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

you to have it, Almiry, an' wear it for love o' 
both o' us,' and she handed it back to me. 
' You give my love to Nathan, — he 's a dear 
good man,' she said ; ' an' tell your mother, if 
I should be sick she must n't wish I could 
get well, but I want her to be the one to 
come.' Then she seemed to have said all 
she wanted to, as if she was done with the 
world, and we sat there a few minutes longer 
together. It was real sweet and quiet except 
for a good many birds and the sea roUin' up 
on the beach ; but at last she rose, an' I did 
too, and she kissed me and held my hand in 
hers a minute, as if to say good-by ; then she 
turned and went right away out o' the door 
and disappeared. 

" The minister come back pretty soon, 
and I told him I was all ready, and we 
started down to the bo't. He had picked 
up some round stones and things and was 
carrying them in his pocket-handkerchief ; 
an' he sat down amidships without making 
any question, and let me take the rudder an' 
work the bo't, an' made no remarks for 
some time, until we sort of eased it off 
speaking of the weather, an' subjects that 
arose as we skirted Black Island, where two 
or three families lived belongin' to the parish. 



THE HERMITAGE. 123 

He preached next Sabbath as usual, some- 
thin' high soundin' about the creation, and 
I could n't help thinkin' he might never get 
no further ; he seemed to know no remedies, 
but he had a great use of words." 

Mrs. Fosdick sighed again. " Hearin' 
you tell about Joanna brings the time right 
back as if 'twas yesterday," she said. " Yes, 
she was one o' them poor things that talked 
about the great sin ; we don't seem to hear 
nothing about the unpardonable sin now, 
but you may say 't was not uncommon then." 

"I expect that if it had been in these 
days, such a person would be plagued to 
death with idle folks," continued Mrs. Todd, 
after a long pause. "As it was, nobody 
trespassed on her; all the folks about the 
bay respected her an' her feelings ; but as 
time wore on, after you left here, one after 
another ventured to make occasion to put 
somethin' ashore for her if they went that 
way. I know mother used to go to see her 
sometimes, and send William over now and 
then with something fresh an' nice from the 
farm. There is a point on the sheltered 
side where you can lay a boat close to shore 
an' land anything safe on the turf out o' 
reach o' the water. There were one or two 



124 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

others, old folks, that she would see, and 
now an' then she 'd hail a passin' boat an' 
ask for somethin' ; and mother got her to 
promise that she would make some sign to 
the Black Island folks if she wanted help. 
I never saw her myself to speak to after 
that day." 

"I expect nowadays, if such a thing hap- 
pened, she 'd have gone out West to her 
uncle's folks or up to Massachusetts and had 
a change, an' come home good as new. The 
world 's bigger an' freer than it used to be," 
urged Mrs. Fosdick. 

''No," said her friend. '"T is like bad 
eyesight, the mind of such a person : if your 
eyes don't see right there may be a remedy, 
but there 's no kind of glasses to remedy the 
mind. No, Joanna was Joanna, and there 
she lays on her island where she lived and 
did her poor penance. She told mother the 
day she was dyin' that she always used to 
want to be fetched inshore when it come to 
the last ; but she 'd thought it over, and 
desired to be laid on the island, if 't was 
thought right. So tlie funeral was out 
there, a Saturday afternoon in September. 
'T was a pretty day, and there wa'n't hardly 
a boat on the coast within twenty miles that 



THE HERMITAGE. 125 

did n't head for Sliell-heap cram-full o' 
folks, an' all real respectful, same 's if she 'd 
always stayed ashore and held her friends. 
Some went out o' mere curiosity, I don't 
doubt, — there 's always such to every 
funeral ; but most had real feelin', and went 
purpose to show it. She 'd got most o' the 
wild sparrows as tame as could be, livin' out 
there so long among 'em, and one flew right 
in and lit on the coffin an' begun to sing 
while Mr. Dimmick was speakin'. He was 
put out by it, an' acted as if he did n't know 
whether to stop or go on. I may have been 
prejudiced, but I wa'n't the only one thought 
the poor little bird done the best of the 
two." 

"What became o' the man that treated 
her so, did you ever hear?" asked Mrs. 
Fosdick. "I know he lived up to Massa- 
chusetts for a while. Somebody who came 
from the same place told me that he was in 
trade there an' doin' very well, but that was 
years ago." 

" I never heard anything more than that ; 
he went to the war in one o' the early rigi- 
ments. No, I never heard any more of 
him," answered Mrs. Todd. " Joanna was 
another sort of person, and perhaps he 



126 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

showed good judgment in marryin' some- 
body else, if only he 'd behaved straight- 
forward and manly. He was a shifty-eyed, 
coaxin' sort of man, that got what he wanted 
out o' folks, an' only gave when he wanted to 
buy, made friends easy and lost 'em without 
knowin' the difference. She 'd had a piece 
o' work tryin' to make him walk accordin' to 
her right ideas, but she 'd have had too much 
variety ever to fall into a melancholy. Some 
is meant to be the Joannas in this world, 
an' 't was her poor lot." 



XV. 

ON SHELL-HEAP ISLAND. 

Some time after Mrs. Fosdick's visit was 
over and we had returned to our former 
quietness, I was out sailing alone with Cap- 
tain Bowden in his large boat. We were 
taking the crooked northeasterly channel 
seaward, and were well out from shore while 
it was still early in the afternoon. I found 
myself presently among some unfamiliar 
islands, and suddenly remembered the story 
of poor Joanna. There is something in the 
fact of a hermitage that cannot fail to touch 
the imagination ; the recluses are a sad kin- 
dred, but they are never commonplace. 
Mrs. Todd had truly said that Joanna was 
like one of the saints in the desert ; the 
loneliness of sorrow will forever keep alive 
their sad succession. 

" Where is Shell-heap Island ! " I asked 
eagerly. 

" You see Shell-heap now, layin' 'way out 



128 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

beyond Black Island there," answered tlie 
captain, pointing with outstretched arm as 
he stood, and holding the rudder with his 
knee. 

" I should like very much to go there," 
said I, and the captain, without comment, 
changed his course a little more to the east- 
ward and let the reef out of his mainsail. 

" I don't know 's we can make an easy 
landin' for ye," he remarked doubtfully. 
" May get your feet wet ; bad place to land. 
Trouble is I ought to have brought a tag- 
boat; but they clutch on to the water so, 
an' I do love to sail free. This gre't boat 
gets easy bothered with anything trailin'. 
'T ain't breakin' much on the meetin'-house 
ledges ; guess I can fetch in to Shell-heap." 

" How long is it since Miss Joanna Todd 
died ? " I asked, partly by way of explana- 
tion. 

"Twenty-two years come September," an- 
swered the captain, after reflection. " She 
died the same year my oldest boy was born, 
an' the town house was burnt over to the 
Port. I did n't know but you merely wanted 
to hunt for some o' them Indian relics. 
Long 's you want to see where Joanna lived 
— No, 't ain't breakin' over the ledges ; 



ON SHELL-HEAP ISLAND. 129 

we '11 manage to fetch across tlie shoals 
somehow, 't is such a distance to go 'way 
round, and tide 's a-risin'," he ended hope- 
fully, and we sailed steadily on, the captain 
speechless with intent watching of a difficult 
course, until the small island with its low 
whitish promontory lay in full view before 
us under the bright afternoon sun. 

The month was August, and I had seen 
the color of the islands change from the 
fresh green of June to a sunburnt brown 
that made them look like stone, except where 
the dark green of the spruces and fir balsam 
kept the tint that even winter storms might 
deepen, but not fade. The few wind-bent 
trees on Shell-heap Island were mostly dead 
and gray, but there were some low-growing 
bushes, and a stripe of light green ran along 
just above the shore, which I knew to be 
wild morning-glories. As we came close I 
could see the high stone walls of a small 
square field, though there were no sheep left 
to assail it; and below, there was a little 
harbor-like cove where Captain Bowden was 
boldly running the great boat in to seek a 
landing-place. There was a crooked channel 
of deep water which led close up against the 
shore. 



130 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" There, you hold fast for'ard there, an' 
wait for her to lift on the wave. You '11 
make a good landin' if you 're smart ; right 
on the port-hand side ! " the captain called 
excitedly ; and I, standing ready with high 
ambition, seized my chance and leaped over 
to the grassy bank. 

" I 'm beat if I ain't aground after all ! " 
mourned the captain despondently. 

But I could reach the bowsprit, and he 
pushed with the boat-hook, while the wind 
veered round a little as if on purpose and 
helped with the sail ; so presently the boat 
was free and began to drift out from shore. 

" Used to call this p'int Joanna 's wharf 
privilege, but 't has worn away in the 
weather since her time. I thought one or 
two bumps would n't hurt us none, — paint 's 
got to be renewed, anyway, — but I never 
thought she 'd tetch. I figured on shyin' 
by," the captain apologized. " She 's too 
gre't a boat to handle well in here ; but I 
used to sort of shy by in Joanna's day, an' 
cast a little somethin' ashore — some apples 
or a couple o' pears if I had 'em — on the 
grass, where she 'd be sure to see." 

I stood watching while Captain Bowden 



ON SHELL-HEAP ISLAND. 131 

cleverly found his way back to deeper water. 
" You need n't make no haste," he called to 
me ; " I '11 keep within call. Joanna lays 
right up there in the far corner o' the field. 
There used to be a path led to the place. I 
always knew her well. I was out here to 
the funeral. 

I found the path ; it was touching to dis- 
cover that this lonely spot was not without 
its pilgrims. Later generations will know 
less and less of Joanna herself, but there 
are paths trodden to the shrines of solitude 
the world over, — the world cannot forget 
them, try as it may ; the feet of the young 
find them out because of curiosity and dim 
foreboding, while the old bring hearts full 
of remembrance. This plain anchorite had 
been one of those whom sorrow made too 
lonely to brave the sight of men, too timid 
to front the simple world she knew, yet val- 
iant enough to live alone with her poor 
insistent human nature and the calms and 
passions of the sea and sky. 

The birds were flying all about the field ; 
they fluttered up out of the grass at my feet 
as I walked along, so tame that I liked to 
think they kept some happy tradition from 



132 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

summer to summer of the safety of nests 
and good fellowship of mankind. Poor Jo- 
anna's house was gone except the stones of 
its foundations, and there was little trace of 
her flower garden except a single faded sprig 
of much-enduring French pinks, which a 
great bee and a yellow butterfly were be- 
friending together. I drank at the spring, 
and thought that now and then some one 
would follow me from the busy, hard-worked, 
and simple-thoughted countryside of the 
mainland, which lay dim and dreamlike 
in the August haze, as Joanna must have 
watched it many a day. There was the 
world, and here was she with eternity well 
begun. In the life of each of us, I said to 
myself, there is a place remote and islanded, 
and given to endless regret or secret happi- 
ness ; we are each the uncompanioned hermit 
and recluse of an hour or a day ; we under- 
stand our fellows of the cell to whatever age 
of history they may belong. 

But as I stood alone on the island, in the 
sea-breeze, suddenly there came a sound of 
distant voices ; gay voices and laughter from 
a pleasure-boat that was going seaward full 
of boys and girls. I knew, as if she had 



ON SHELL-HEAP ISLAND. 133 

told me, that poor Joanna must have heard 
the like on many and many a summer after- 
noon, and must have welcomed the good 
cheer in spite of hopelessness and winter 
weather, and all the sorrow and disappoint- 
ment in the world. 



XVI. 

THE GKEAT EXPEDITION. 

Mrs. Todd never by any chance gave 
warning over night of her great projects and 
adventures by sea and land. She first came 
to an understanding with the primal forces 
of nature, and never trusted to any prelimi- 
nary promise of good weather, but exam- 
ined the day for herself in its infancy. 
Then, if the stars were propitious, and the 
wind blew from a quarter of good inherit- 
ance whence no surprises of sea-turns or 
southwest sultriness might be feared, long 
before I was fairly awake I used to hear a 
rustle and knocking like a great mouse in the 
walls, and an impatient tread on the steep 
garret stairs that led to Mrs. Todd's chief 
place of storage. She went and came as if 
she had already started on her expedition 
with utmost haste and kept returning for 
something that was forgotten. When I ap- 
peared in quest of my breakfast, she would 



THE GREAT EXPEDITION. 135 

be absent-minded and sparing of speech, as 
if I bad displeased ber, and sbe was now, by 
main force of principle, holding herself back 
from altercation and strife of tongues. 

These signs of a change became familiar 
to me in the course of time, and Mrs. Todd 
hardly noticed some plain proofs of divina- 
tion one August morning when I said, with- 
out preface, that I had just seen the Beggs' 
best chaise go by, and that we should have 
to take the grocery. Mrs. Todd was alert 
in a moment. 

" There ! I might have known ! " she ex- 
claimed. " It 's the 15th of August, when 
he goes and gets his money. He heired an 
annuity from an uncle o' his on his mother's 
side. I understood the uncle said none o' 
Sam Begg's wife's folks should make free 
with it, so after Sam 's gone it '11 all be past 
an' spent, like last summer. That 's what 
Sam prospers on now, if you can call it pros- 
perin'. Yes, I might have known. 'T is 
the 15th o' August with him, an' he gener'ly 
stops to dinner with a cousin's widow on the 
way home. Feb'uary an' August is the 
times. Takes him 'bout all day to go an' 
come." 

I heard this explanation with interest. 



136 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

The tone of Mrs. Todd's voice was complain- 
ing at the last. 

" I like the grocery just as well as the 
chaise," I hastened to say, referring to a 
long-bodied high wagon with a canoj^y-top, 
like an attenuated four-posted bedstead on 
wheels, in which we sometimes journeyed. 
" We can put things in behind — roots and 
flowers and raspberries, or anything you are 
going after — much better than if we had 
the chaise." 

Mrs. Todd looked stony and unwilling. 
" I counted upon the chaise," she said, turn- 
ing her back to me, and roughly pushing 
back all the quiet tumblers on the cupboard 
shelf as if they had been impertinent. 
" Yes, I desired the chaise for once. I ain't 
goin' berryin' nor to fetch home no more 
wilted vegetation this year. Season 's about 
past, except for a poor few o' late things," 
she added in a milder tone. " I 'm goin' up 
country. No, I ain't intendin' to go berryin'. 
I 've been plottin' for it the past fortnight 
and hopin' for a good day." 

" Would you like to have me go too ? " I 
asked frankly, but not without a humble 
fear that I might have mistaken the purpose 
of this latest plan. 



TEE GREAT EXPEDITION. 137 

" Oh certain, dear ! " answered my friend 
affectionately. " Oh no, I never thought 
o' any one else for comp'ny, if it 's conve- 
nient for you, long 's poor mother ain't come. 
I ain't nothin' like so handy with a convey- 
ance as I be with a good bo't. Comes o' my 
early bringing-up. I expect we 've got to 
make that great high wagon do. The tires 
want settin' and 't is all loose-jointed, so I 
can hear it shackle the other side o' the 
ridge. We '11 put the basket in front. I 
ain't goin' to have it bouncin' an' twirlin' 
all the way. Why, I 've been makin' some 
nice hearts and rounds to carry." 

These were signs of high festivity, and 
my interest deepened moment by moment. 

" I '11 go down to the Beggs' and get the 
horse just as soon as I finish my breakfast," 
said I. " Then we can start whenever you 
are ready." 

Mrs. Todd looked cloudy again. "I 
don't know but you look nice enough to go 
just as you be," she suggested doubtfully. 
" No, you would n't want to wear that pretty 
blue dress o' yourn 'way up country. 'T ain't 
dusty now, but it may be comin' home. No, 
I expect you 'd rather not wear that and the 
other hat." 



138 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" Oh yes. I should n't think of wearing 
these clothes," said I, with sudden illumina- 
tion. " Why, if we 're going up country 
and are likely to see some of your friends, 
I'll put on my blue dress, and you must 
wear your watch ; I am not going at all if 
you mean to wear the big hat." 

" Now you 're behavin' pretty," responded 
Mrs. Todd, with a gay toss of her head and 
a cheerful smile, as she came across the 
room, bringing a saucerful of wild rasp- 
berries, a pretty piece of salvage from sup- 
per-time. " I was cast down when I see you 
come to breakfast. I did n't think 't was 
just what you 'd select to wear to the re- 
union, where you 're goin' to meet every- 
body." 

" What reunion do you mean?" I asked, 
not without amazement. " Not the Bowden 
Family's ? I thought that was going to 
take place in September." 

" To-day 's the day. They sent word the 
middle o' the week. I thought you might 
have heard of it. Yes, they changed the 
day. I been thinkin' we 'd talk it over, but 
you never can tell beforehand how it 's goin' 
to be, and 't ain't worth while to wear a day 
all out before it comes." Mrs. Todd gave 



THE GREAT EXPEDITION. 139 

no place to the pleasures of anticipation, but 
she spoke like the oracle that she was. " I 
wish mother was here to go," she continued 
sadly. " I did look for her last night, and 
I could n't keep back the tears when the 
dark really fell and she wa'n't here, she does 
so enjoy a great occasion. If William had 
a mite o' snap an' ambition, he 'd take the 
lead at such a time. Mother likes variety, 
and there ain't but a few nice opportuni- 
ties 'round here, an' them she has to miss 
'less she contrives to get ashore to me. I 
do re'lly hate to go to the reunion without 
mother, an' 'tis a beautiful day; every- 
body '11 be asking where she is. Once she 'd 
have got here anyway. Poor mother 's be- 
ginnin' to feel her age." 

" Why, there 's your mother now ! " I ex- 
claimed with joy, I was so glad to see the 
dear old soul again. " I hear her voice at 
the gate." But Mrs. Todd was out of the 
door before me. 

There, sure enough, stood Mrs. Blackett, 
who must have left Green Island before 
daylight. She had climbed the steep road 
from the water-side so eagerly that she was 
out of breath, and was standing by the gar- 
den fence to rest. She held an old-fashioned 



140 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIBS. 

brown wicker cap-basket in her hand, as 
if visiting were a thing of every day, and 
looked up at us as pleased and triumphant 
as a child. 

" Oh, what a poor, plain garden ! Hardly 
a flower in it except your bush o' balm ! " 
she said. " But you do keep your garden 
neat, Almiry. Are you both well, an' goin' 
up country with me ? " She came a step or 
two closer to meet us, with quaint polite- 
ness and quite as delightful as if she were 
at home. She dropped a quick little curtsey 
before Mrs. Todd. 

" There, mother, what a girl you be ! I 
am so pleased ! I was just bewailin' you," 
said the daughter, with unwonted feeling. 
" I was just bewailin' you, I was so disap- 
pointed, an' I kep' myself awake a good 
piece o' the night scoldin' poor William. I 
w^atched for the boat till I was ready to shed 
tears yisterday, and when 't was comin' 
dark I kep' making errands out to the gate 
an' down the road to see if you wa'n't in the 
doldrums somewhere down the bay." 

'' There was a head wind, as you know," 
said Mrs. Blackett, giving me the cap-bas- 
ket, and holding my hand affectionately as 
we walked up the clean-swept path to the 



TEE GREAT EXPEDITION, 141 

door.. " I was partly ready to come, but 
dear William said I should be all tired out 
and might get cold, havin' to beat all the 
way in. So we give it up, and set down and 
spent the evenin' together. It was a little 
rough and windy outside, and I guess 't was 
better judgment ; we went to bed very early 
and made a good start just at daylight. It 's 
been a lovely mornin' on the water. Wil- 
liam thought he 'd better fetch across be- 
yond Bird Kocks, rowin' the greater part 
o' the way ; then we sailed from there right 
over to the Landin', makin' only one tack. 
William '11 be in again for me to-morrow, so 
I can come back here an' rest me over night, 
an' go to meetin' to-morrow, and have a nice, 
good visit." 

" She was just havin' her breakfast," said 
Mrs. Todd, who had listened eagerly to the 
long explanation without a word of disap- 
proval, while her face shone more and more 
with joy. "You just sit right down an' 
have a cup of tea and rest you while we 
make our preparations. Oh, I am so grati- 
fied to think you 've come ! Yes, she was 
just havin' her breakfast, and we were 
speakin' of you. Where 's William ? " 

" He went right back ; he said he expected 



142 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

some schooners in about noon after bait, but 
he '11 come an' have his dinner with us to- 
morrow, unless it rains ; then next day. I 
laid his best things out all ready," explained 
Mrs. Blackett, a little anxiously. "This 
wind will serve him nice all the way home. 
Yes, I will take a cup of tea, dear, — a cup 
of tea is always good ; and then I '11 rest a 
minute and be all ready to start." 

" I do feel condemned for havin' such 
hard thoughts o' William," openly confessed 
Mrs. Todd. She stood before us so large 
and serious that we both laughed and could 
not find it in our hearts to convict so rueful 
a culprit. " He shall have a good dinner 
to-morrow, if it can be got, and I shall be 
real glad to see William," the confession 
ended handsomely, while Mrs. Blackett 
smiled approval and made haste to praise 
the tea. Then I hurried away to make sure 
of the grocery wagon. Whatever might 
be the good of the reunion, I was going to 
have the pleasure and delight of a day in 
Mrs. Blackett's company, not to speak of 
Mrs. Todd's. 

The early morning breeze was still blow- 
ing, and the warm, sunshiny air was of 
some ethereal northern sort, with a cool 



TEE GREAT EXPEDITION. 143 

freshness as if it came over new-fallen snow. 
The world was filled with a fragrance of fir- 
balsam and the faintest flavor of seaweed 
from the ledges, bare and brown at low tide 
in the little harbor. It was so still and so 
early that the village was but half awake. 
I could hear no voices but those of the 
birds, smaU and great, — the constant song 
sparrows, the clink of a yellow-hammer 
over in the woods, and the far conversation 
of some deliberate crows. I saw William 
Blackett's escaping sail already far from 
land, and Captain Littlepage was sitting 
behind his closed window as I passed by, 
watching for some one who never came. I 
tried to speak to him, but he did not see me. 
There was a patient look on the old man's 
face, as if the world were a great mistake 
and he had nobody with whom to speak his 
own language or find companionship. 



XVII. 

A COUNTRY EOAD. 

"Whatever doubts and anxieties I may 
have had about the inconvenience of the 
Beggs' high wagon for a person of Mrs. 
Blackett's age and shortness, they were hap- 
pily overcome by the aid of a chair and her 
own valiant spirit. Mrs. Todd bestowed 
great care upon seating us as if we were 
taking passage by boat, but she finally pro- 
nounced that we were properly trimmed. 
When we had gone only a little way up the 
hill she remembered that she had left the 
house door wide open, though the large key 
was safe in her pocket. I offered to run 
back, but my offer was met with lofty scorn, 
and we lightly dismissed the matter from 
our minds, until two or three miles further 
on we met the doctor, and Mrs. Todd asked 
him to stop and ask her nearest neighbor 
to step over and close the door if the dust 
seemed to blow in the afternoon. 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 145 

" She '11 be there in her kitchen ; she '11 
hear you the minute you call ; 't wont give 
you no delay," said Mrs. Todd to the doctor. 
" Yes, Mis' Dennett 's right there, with the 
windows all open. It isn't as if my fore 
door opened right on the road, anyway." 
At w^hich proof of composure Mrs. Blackett 
smiled wisely at me. 

The doctor seemed delighted to see our 
guest ; they were evidently the warmest 
friends, and I saw a look of affectionate 
confidence in their eyes. The good man 
left his carriage to speak to us, but as he 
took Mrs. Blackett's hand he held it a mo- 
ment, and, as if merely from force of habit, 
felt her pulse as they talked ; then to my 
delight he gave the firm old wrist a com- 
mending pat. 

" You 're wearing well : good for another 
ten years at this rate," he assured her cheer- 
fully, and she smiled back. " I like to keep 
a strict account of my old stand-bys," and he 
turned to me. " Don't you let Mrs. Todd 
overdo to-day, — old folks like her are apt to 
be thoughtless ; " and then we all laughed, 
and, parting, went our ways gayly. 

" I suppose he puts up with your rivalry 
the same as ever?" asked Mrs. Blackett. 



146 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" You and he are as friendly as ever, I see, 
Almiry," and Almira sagely nodded. 

" He 's got too many long routes now to 
stop to 'tend to all his door patients," she 
said, "especially them that takes pleasure 
in talkin' themselves over. The doctor and 
me have got to be kind of partners ; he 's 
gone a good deal, far an' wide. Looked 
tired, did n't he ? I shall have to advise 
with him an' get him off for a good rest. 
He '11 take the big boat from Rockland an' 
go off up to Boston an' mouse round among 
the other doctors, once in two or three years, 
and come home fresh as a boy. I guess 
they think consider'ble of him up there." 
Mrs. Todd shook the reins and reached 
determinedly for the whip, as if she were 
compelling public opinion. 

Whatever energy and spirit the white horse 
had to begin with were soon exhausted by 
the steep hills and his discernment of a long 
expedition ahead. We toiled slowly along. 
Mrs. Blackett and I sat together, and Mrs. 
Todd sat alone in front with much majesty 
and the large basket of provisions. Part 
of the way the road was shaded by thick 
woods, but we also passed one farmhouse 
after another on the high uplands, which 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 147 

we all three regarded witli deep interest, the 
house itself and the barns and garden-spots 
and poultry all having to suffer an inspec- 
tion of the shrewdest sort. This was a high- 
way quite new to me ; in fact, most of my 
journeys with Mrs. Todd had been made 
afoot and between the roads, in open pasture- 
lands. My friends stopped several times 
for brief dooryard visits, and made so many 
promises of stopping again on the way home 
that I began to wonder how long the ex- 
pedition would last. I had often noticed 
how warmly Mrs. Todd was greeted by her 
friends, but it was hardly to be compared 
to the feeling now shown toward Mrs. 
Blackett. A look of delight came to the 
faces of those who recognized the plain, dear 
old figure beside me ; one revelation after 
another was made of the constant interest 
and intercourse that had linked the far 
island and these scattered farms into a golden 
chain of love and dependence. 

" Now, we must n't stop again if we can 
help it," insisted Mrs. Todd at last. " You '11 
get tired, mother, and you '11 think the less o' 
reunions. We can visit along here any day. 
There, if they ain't frying doughnuts in 
this next house, too ! These are new f olks^ 



148 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. , 

you know, from over St. George way ; they 
took this old Talcot farm last year. 'T is 
the best water on the road, and the check- 
rein 's come undone — yes, we 'd best delay a 
little and water the horse." 

We stopped, and seeing a party of pleas- 
ure-seekers in holiday attire, the thin, anx- 
ious mistress of the farmhouse came out with 
wistful sympathy to hear what news we might 
have to give. Mrs. Blackett first spied her 
at the half-closed door, and asked with such 
cheerful directness if we were trespassing 
that, after a few words, she went back to 
her kitchen and reappeared with a plateful 
of doughnuts. 

"Entertainment for man and beast," an- 
nounced Mrs. Todd with satisfaction. " Why, 
we 've perceived there was new doughnuts 
all along the road, but you 're the first that 
has treated us." 

Our new acquaintance flushed with pleas- 
ure, but said nothing. 

"• They 're very nice ; you 've had good 
luck with 'em," pronounced Mrs. Todd. 
" Yes, we 've observed there was doughnuts 
all the way along ; if one house is frying all 
the rest is ; 't is so with a great many things." 

" I don't suppose likely you 're goin' up to 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 149 

the Bowden reunion ? " asked the hostess as 
the white horse lifted his head and we were 
saying good-by. 

" Why, yes," said Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. 
Todd and I, all together. 

" I am connected with the family. Yes, 
I expect to be there this afternoon. I 've 
been lookin' forward to it," she told us 
eagerly. 

" We shall see you there. Come and sit 
with us if it 's convenient," said dear Mrs. 
Blackett, and we drove away. 

*' I wonder who she was before she was 
married ? " said Mrs. Todd, who was usually 
unerring in matters of genealogy. " She 
must have been one of that remote branch 
that lived down beyond Thomaston. We can 
find out this afternoon. I expect that the 
families '11 march together, or be sorted out 
some way. I 'm willing to own a relation 
that has such proper ideas of doughnuts." 

" I seem to see the family looks," said 
Mrs. Blackett. " I wish we 'd asked her 
name. She 's a stranger, and I want to help 
make it pleasant for all such," 

" She resembles Cousin Pa'lina Bowden 
about the forehead," said Mrs. Todd with 
decision. 



150 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

We had just passed a piece of woodland 
that shaded the road, and come out to some 
open fields beyond, when Mrs. Todd sud- 
denly reined in the horse as if somebody had 
stood on the roadside and stopped her. She 
even gave that quick reassuring nod of her 
head which was usually made to answer for 
a bow, but I discovered that she was looking 
eagerly at a tall ash-tree that grew just inside 
the field fence. 

" I thought 't was goin' to do well," she 
said complacently as we went on again. 
" Last time I was up this way that tree was 
kind of drooping and discouraged. Grown 
trees act that way sometimes, same 's folks ; 
then they '11 put right to it and strike their 
roots off into new ground and start all over 
again with real good courage. Ash-trees is 
very likely to have poor spells ; they ain't 
got the resolution of other trees." 

I listened hopefully for more ; it was this 
peculiar wisdom that made one value Mrs. 
Todd's pleasant company. 

" There 's sometimes a good hearty tree 
growin' right out of the bare rock, out o' 
some crack that just holds the roots ; " she 
went on to say, " right on the pitch o' one o' 
them bare stony hills where you can't seem 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 151 

to see a wheel-barrowful o' good earth in a 
place, but that tree '11 keep a green top in the 
driest summer. You lay your ear down to 
the ground an' you'll hear a little stream 
runnin'. Every such tree has got its own 
livin' spring; there's folks made to match 



'em. 



I could not help turning to look at Mrs. 
Blackett, close beside me. Her hands were 
clasped placidly in their thin black woolen 
gloves, and she was looking at the flowery 
wayside as we went slowly along, with a 
pleased, expectant smile. I do not think she 
had heard a word about the trees. 

" I just saw a nice plant o' elecampane 
growin' back there," she said presently to 
her daughter. 

"I haven't got my mind on herbs to- 
day," responded Mrs. Todd, in the most 
matter-of-fact way. "I'm bent on seeing 
folks," and she shook the reins again. 

I for one had no wish to hurry, it was so 
pleasant in the shady roads. The woods 
stood close to the road on the right ; on the 
left were narrow fields and pastures where 
there were as many acres of spruces and 
pines as there were acres of bay and juniper 
and huckleberry, with a little turf between. 



152 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

When I thought we were in the heart of 
the inland country, we reached the top of 
a hill, and suddenly there lay spread out 
before us a wonderful great view of well- 
cleared fields that swept down to the wide 
water of a bay. Beyond this were distant 
shores like another country in the midday 
haze which half hid the hills beyond, and the 
far-away pale blue mountains on the north- 
ern horizon. There was a schooner with 
all sails set coming down the bay from a 
white village that was sprinkled on the shore, 
and there were many sailboats flitting about. 
It was a noble landscape, and my eyes, 
which had grown used to the narrow inspec- 
tion of a shaded roadside, could hardly take 
it in. 

" Why, it 's the upper bay," said Mrs. 
Todd. "You can see 'way over into the 
town of Fessenden. Those farms 'way over 
there are all in Fessenden. Mother used to 
have a sister that lived up that shore. If 
we started as early 's we could on a summer 
mornin', we could n't get to her place from 
Green Island till late afternoon, even with 
a fair, steady breeze, and you had to strike 
the time just right so as to fetch up 'long o' 
the tide and land near the flood. 'T was 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 153 

ticklish business, an' we did n't visit back 
an' fortb as much as mother desired. You 
have to go 'way down the co'st to Cold 
Spring Light an' round that long point, — 
up here 's what they call the Back Shore." 

" No, we were 'most always separated, my 
dear sister and me, after the first year she 
was married," said Mrs. Blackett. " We 
had our little families an' plenty o' cares. 
We were always lookin' forward to the time 
we could see each other more. Now and 
then she 'd get out to the island for a few 
days while her husband 'd go fishin' ; and 
once he stopped with her an' two children, 
and made him some flakes right there and 
cured all his fish for winter. We did have 
a beautiful time together, sister an' me ; she 
used to look back to it long 's she lived." 

" I do love to look over there where she 
used to live," Mrs. Blackett went on as we 
began to go down the hill. " It seems as if 
she must still be there, though she 's long 
been gone. She loved their farm, — she 
did n't see how I got so used to our island ; 
but somehow I was always happy from the 
first." 

" Yes, it 's very dull to me up among 
those slow farms," declared Mrs. Todd. 



154 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" The snow troubles 'em in winter. They 're 
all besieged by winter, as you may say ; 't is 
far better by the shore than up among such 
places. I never thought I should like to 
live up country." 

" Why, just see the carriages ahead of us 
on the next rise ! " exclaimed Mrs. Blackett. 
" There 's going to be a great gathering, 
don't you believe there is, Almiry ? It has n't 
seemed up to now as if anybody was going 
but us. An' 't is such a beautiful day, with 
yesterday cool and pleasant to work an' get 
ready, I should n't wonder if everybody 
was there, even the slow ones like Phebe 
Ann Brock." 

Mrs. Biackett's eyes were bright with 
excitement, and even Mrs. Todd showed 
remarkable enthusiasm. She hurried the 
horse and caught up with the holiday-makers 
ahead. " There 's all the Dep'fords goin', 
six in the wagon," she told us joyfully ; " an' 
Mis' Alva Tilley's folks are now risin' the 
hill in their new carryall." 

Mrs. Blackett pulled at the neat bow of 
her black bonnet - strings, and tied them 
again with careful precision. " I believe 
your bonnet 's on a little bit sideways, dear," 
she advised Mrs. Todd as if she were a 



A COUNTRY ROAD. 155 

child ; but Mrs. Todd was too much occu- 
pied to pay proper heed. We began to feel 
a new sense of gayety and of taking part 
in the great occasion as we joined the little 
train. 



XVIII. 

THE BOWDEN REUNION. 

It is very rare in country life, where high 
days and holidays are few, that any occasion 
of general interest proves to be less than 
great. Such is the hidden fire of enthusi- 
asm in the New England nature that, once 
given an outlet, it shines forth with almost 
volcanic light and heat. In quiet neighbor- 
hoods such inward force does not waste itself 
upon those petty excitements of every day 
that belong to cities, but when, at long inter- 
vals, the altars to patriotism, to friendship, 
to the ties of kindred, are reared in our 
familiar fields, then the fires glow, the flames 
come up as if from the inexhaustible burn- 
ing heart of the earth; the primal fires 
break through the granite dust in which our 
souls are set. Each heart is warm and every 
face shines with the ancient light. Such a 
day as this has transfiguring powers, and 
easily makes friends of those who have been 
cold-hearted, and gives to those who are 



THE BOWDEN REUNION. 157 

dumb their chance to speak, and lends some 
beauty to the plainest face. 

'^ Oh, I expect I shall meet friends to- 
day that I have n't seen in a long while," 
said Mrs. Blackett with deep satisfaction. 
" 'T will bring out a good many of the old 
folks, 't is such a lovely day. I 'm always 
glad not to have them disappointed." 

"I guess likely the best of 'em '11 be 
there," answered Mrs. Todd with gentle 
humor, stealing a glance at me. " There 's 
one thing certain : there 's nothing takes in 
this whole neighborhood like anything re- 
lated to the Bowdens. Yes, I do feel that 
when you call upon the Bowdens you may 
expect most families to rise up between the 
Landing and the far end of the Back Cove. 
Those that are n't kin by blood are kin by 
marriage." 

" There used to be an old story goin' 
about when I was a girl," said Mrs. Blackett, 
with much amusement. " There was a great 
many more Bowdens then than there are 
now, and the folks was all setting in meeting 
a dreadful hot Sunday afternoon, and ascat- 
ter-witted little bound girl came running to 
the meetin'-house door all out o' breath from 
somewheres in the neighborhood. 'Mis' 



158 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

Bowclen, Mis' Bowden ! ' says she. ' Your 
baby 's in a fit ! ' They used to tell that the 
whole congregation was up on its feet in a 
minute and right out into the aisles. All 
the Mis' Bowdens was setting right out for 
home ; the minister stood there in the pulpit 
trying' to keep sober, an' all at once he burst 
right out laughin'. He was a very nice man, 
they said, and he said he 'd better give 'em 
the benediction, and they could hear the ser- 
mon next Sunday, so he kept it over. My 
mother was there, and she thought certain 
't was me." 

" None of our family was ever subject to 
fits," interrupted Mrs. Todd severely. " No, 
we never had fits, none of us, and 't was 
lucky we did n't 'way out there to Green 
Island. Now these folks right in front: 
dear sakes knows the bunches o' soothing 
catnip an' yarrow I 've had to favor old 
Mis' Evins with dryin' ! You can see it 
right in their expressions, all them Evins 
folks. There, just you look up to the cross- 
roads, mother," she suddenly exclaimed. 
" See all the teams ahead of us. And oh, 
look down on the bay ; yes, look down on 
the bay ! See what a sight o' boats, all 
headin' for the Bowden place cove ! " 



THE BOWDEN REUNION. 159 

" Oh, ain't it beautiful ! " said Mrs. Black- 
ett, witli all the delight of a girl. She stood 
up in the high wagon to see everything, and 
when she sat down again she took fast hold 
of my hand. 

" Had n't you better urge the horse a little, 
Almiry ? " she asked. " He 's had it easy 
as we came along, and he can rest when we 
get there. The others are some little ways 
ahead, and I don't want to lose a minute." 

We watched the boats drop their sails one 
by one in the cove as we drove along the 
high land. The old Bowden house stood, 
low-storied and broad-roofed, in its green 
fields as if it were a motherly brown hen 
waiting for the flock that came straying 
toward it from every direction. The first 
Bowden settler had made his home there, 
and it was still the Bowden farm ; five gen- 
erations of sailors and farmers and soldiers 
had been its children. And presently Mrs. 
Blackett showed me the stone-walled bury- 
ing-ground that stood like a little fort on a 
knoll overlooking the bay, but, as she said, 
there were plenty of scattered Bowdens who 
were not laid there, — some lost at sea, and 
some out West, and some who died in the 
war ; most of the home graves were those o£ 
women. 



160 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

We could see now that there were differ- 
ent footpaths from along shore and across 
country. In all these there were straggling 
processions walking in single file, like old 
illustrations of the Pilgrim's Progress. There 
was a crowd about the house as if huge bees 
were swarming in the lilac bushes. Beyond 
the fields and cove a higher point of land 
ran out into the bay, covered with woods 
which must have kept away much of the 
northwest wind in winter. Now there was a 
pleasant look of shade and shelter there for 
the great family meeting. 

We hurried on our way, beginning to feel 
as if we were very late, and it was a great 
satisfaction at last to turn out of the stony 
highroad into a green lane shaded with old 
apple - trees. Mrs. Todd encouraged the 
horse until he fairly pranced with gayety 
as we drove round to the front of the house 
on the soft turf. There was an instant cry 
of rejoicing, and two or three persons ran 
toward us from the busy group. 

" Why, dear Mis' Blackett ! — here 's Mis' 
Blackett ! " I heard them say, as if it were 
pleasure enough for one day to have a sight 
of her. Mrs. Todd turned to me with a 
lovely look of triumph and self-forgetf ulness. 



THE BO WD EN RE UNION. 161 

An elderly man who wore tlie look of a pros- 
perous sea-captain put up both arms and 
lifted Mrs. Blackett down from the high 
wagon like a child, and kissed her with 
hearty affection. " I was master afraid she 
would n't be here," he said, looking at Mrs. 
Todd with a face like a happy sunburnt 
schoolboy, while everybody crowded round 
to give their welcome. 

" Mother 's always the queen," said Mrs. 
Todd. " Yes, they '11 all make everything 
of mother ; she '11 have a lovely time to-day. 
I would n't have had her miss it, and there 
won't be a thing she '11 ever regret, except 
to mourn because William wa'n't here." 

Mrs. Blackett having been pro23erly es- 
corted to the house, Mrs. Todd received her 
own full share of honor, and some of the 
men, with a simple kindness that was the 
soul of chivalry, waited upon us and our 
baskets and led away the white horse. I 
already knew some of Mrs. Todd's friends 
and kindred, and felt like an adopted Bow- 
den in this happy moment. It seemed to 
be enough for any one to have arrived by 
the same conveyance as Mrs. Blackett, who 
presently had her court inside the house, 
while Mrs. Todd, large, hospitable, and pre- 



162 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

eminent, was the centre of a rapidly increas- 
ing crowd about tlie lilac bushes. Small 
companies were continually coming up the 
long green slope from the water, and nearly 
all the boats had come to shore. I counted 
three or four that were baffled by the light 
breeze, but before long all the Bowdens, 
small and great, seemed to have assembled, 
and we started to go up to the grove across 
the field. 

Out of the chattering crowd of noisy chil- 
dren, and large-waisted women whose best 
black dresses fell straight to the ground iu 
generous folds, and sunburnt men who looked 
as serious as if it were town-meeting day, 
there suddenly came silence and order. I 
saw the straight, soldierly little figure of a 
man who bore a fine resemblance to Mrs. 
Blackett, and who appeared to marshal us 
with perfect ease. He was imperative enough, 
but with a grand military sort of courtesy, 
and bore himself with solemn dignity of im- 
portance. We were sorted out according to 
some clear design of his own, and stood as 
speechless as a troop to await his orders. 
Even the children were ready to march 
together, a pretty flock, and at the last mo- 
ment Mrs. Blackett and a few distinguished 



TEE B WDEN RE UNION. 163 

companions, the ministers and those who 
were very old, came out of the house together 
and took their places. We ranked by fours, 
and even then we made a long procession. 

There was a wide path mowed for us 
across the field, and, as we moved along, the 
birds flew up out of the thick second crop 
of clover, and the bees hummed as if it still 
were June. There was a flashing of white 
gulls over the water where the fleet of boats 
rode the low waves together in the cove, 
swaying their small masts as if they kept 
time to our steps. The plash of the water 
could be heard faintly, yet still be heard ; 
we might have been a company of ancient 
Greeks going to celebrate a victory, or to 
worship the god of harvests in the grove 
above. It was strangely moving to see this 
and to make part of it. The sky, the sea, 
have watched poor humanity at its rites so 
long ; we were no more a New England fam- 
ily celebrating its own existence and simple 
progress ; we carried the tokens and inher- 
itance of all such households from which 
this had descended, and were only the latest 
of our line. We possessed the instincts of 
a far, forgotten childhood ; I found myself 
thinking that we ought to be carrying green 



164 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIRS. 

branches and singing as we went. So we 
came to the thick shaded grove still silent, 
and were set in our places by the straight 
trees that swayed together and let sunshine 
through here and there like a single golden 
leaf that flickered down, vanishing in the 
cool shade. 

The grove was so large that the great 
family looked far smaller than it had in the 
open field ; there was a thick growth of dark 
pines and firs with an occasional maple or 
oak that gave a gleam of color like a bright 
window in the great roof. On three sides 
we could see the water, shining behind the 
tree -trunks, and feel the cool salt breeze 
that began to come up with the tide just as 
the day reached its highest point of heat. 
We could see the green sunlit field we had 
just crossed as if we looked out at it from 
a dark room, and the old house and its lilacs 
standing placidly in the sun, and the great 
barn with a stockade of carriages from which 
two or three care-taking men who had lin- 
gered were coming across the field together. 
Mrs. Todd had taken off her warm gloves 
and looked the picture of content. 

" There ! " she exclaimed. " I 've always 
meant to have you see this place, but I never 



THE BO WDEN RE UNION. 165 

looked for sucli a beautiful opportunity — 
weather an' occasion both made to match. 
Yes, it suits me : I don't ask no more. I 
want to know if you saw mother walkin' at 
the head! It choked me right up to see 
mother at the head, walkin' with the minis- 
ters," and Mrs. Todd turned away to hide 
the feelings she could not instantly control. 

" Who was the marshal ? " I hastened to 
ask. " "Was he an old soldier? " 

" Don't he do well ? " answered Mrs. Todd 
with satisfaction. 

" He don't often have such a chance to 
show off his gifts," said Mrs. Caplin, a 
friend from the Landing who had joined us. 
" That 's Sant Bowden ; he always takes the 
lead, such days. Good for nothing else most 
o' his time ; trouble is, he " — 

I turned with interest to hear the worst. 
Mrs. Caplin's tone was both zealous and im- 
pressive. 

" Stim'lates," she explained scornfully. 

" No, Santin never was in the war," said 
Mrs. Todd with lofty indifference. " It was 
a cause of real distress to him. He kep' en- 
listin', and traveled far an' wide about here, 
an' even took the bo't and went to Boston 
to volunteer ; but he ain't a sound man, an' 



166 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

they would n't have him. They say he knows 
all their tactics, an' can tell all about the 
battle o' Waterloo well 's he can Bunker 
Hill. I told him once the country 'd lost a 
great general, an' I meant it, too." 

" I expect you 're near right," said Mrs. 
Caplin, a little crestfallen and apologetic. 

" I be right," insisted Mrs. Todd with 
much amiability. " 'T was most too bad to 
cramp him down to his peaceful trade, but 
he 's a most excellent shoemaker at his best, 
an' he always says it 's a trade that gives 
him time to think an' plan his manoeuvres. 
Over to the Port they always invite him to 
march Decoration Day, same as the rest, 
an' he does look noble ; he comes of soldier 
stock." 

I had been noticing with great interest 
the curiously French type of face which 
prevailed in this rustic company. I had 
said to myself before that Mrs. Blackett was 
plainly of French descent, in both her ap- 
pearance and her charming gifts, but this is 
not surprising when one has learned how 
large a proportion of the early settlers on 
this northern coast of New England were of 
Huguenot blood, and that it is the Norman 
Englishman, not the Saxon, who goes adven- 
turing to a new world. 



THE BOWDENRE UNION. 167 

"They used to say in old times," said 
Mrs, Todd modestly, " that our family came 
of very high folks in France, and one of 'em 
was a great general in some o' the old wars. 
I sometimes think that Santin's ability has 
come 'way down from then. 'T ain't nothin' 
he 's ever acquired ; 't was born in him. I 
don't know 's he ever saw a fine parade, or 
met with those that studied up such things. 
He 's figured it all out an' got his papers 
so he knows how to aim a cannon right 
for William's fish-house five miles out on 
Green Island, or up there on Burnt Island 
where the signal is. He had it all over 
to me one day, an' I tried hard to appear 
interested. His life 's all in it, but he will 
have those poor gloomy spells come over 
him now an' then, an' then he has to drink." 

Mrs. Caplin gave a heavy sigh. 

" There 's a great many such strayaway 
folks, just as there is plants," continued Mrs. 
Todd, who was nothing if not botanical. " I 
know of just one sprig of laurel that grows 
over back here in a wild spot, an' I never 
could hear of no other on this coast. I had 
a large bunch brought me once from Massa- 
chusetts way, so I know it. This piece grows 
in an open spot where you 'd think 't would 



168 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

do well, but it 's sort o' poor-lookin'. I 've 
visited it time an' again, just to notice its 
poor blooms. 'T is a real Sant Bowden, out 
of its own place." 

Mrs. Caplin looked bewildered and 
blank. " Well, all I know is, last year lie 
worked out some kind of a j^lan so 's to 
parade the county conference in platoons, 
and got 'em all flustered up tryin' to sense 
bis ideas of a holler square," she burst forth, 
" They was holler enough anyway after 
ridin' 'way down from up country into the 
salt air, and they 'd been treated to a sermon 
on faith an' works from old Fayther Harlow 
that never knows when to cease. 'T wa'n't 
no time for tactics then, — they wa'n't 
a-thinkin' of the church military. Sant, he 
could n't do nothin' with 'em. All he thinks 
of, when he sees a crowd, is how to march 
'em. 'T is all very well when he don't 
'tempt too much. He never did act like 
other folks." 

"Ain't I just been maintainin' that he 
ain't like 'em? " urged Mrs. Todd decidedly. 
" Strange folks has got to have strange ways, 
for what I see." 

" Somebody observed once that you could 
pick out the likeness of 'most every sort of 



THE BOWDEN REUNION. 169 

a foreigner when you looked about you in 
our parish," said Sister Caplin, her face 
brio'htenino' with sudden ilkimination. " I 
didn't see the bearin' of it then quite so 
plain. I always did think Mari' Harris 
resembled a Chinee." 

"Mari' Harris was pretty as a child, I 
remember," said the pleasant voice of Mrs. 
Blackett, who, after receiving the affection- 
ate greetings of nearly the whole company, 
came to join us, — to see, as she insisted, 
that we were out of mischief. 

" Yes, Mari' was one o' them pretty little 
lambs that make dreadful homely old sheep," 
replied Mrs. Todd with energy. " Cap'n 
Littlepage never 'd look so disconsolate if 
she was any sort of a proper person to direct 
things. She might divert him; yes, she 
might divert the old gentleman, an' let him 
think he had his own way, 'stead o' argu- 
ing everything down to the bare bone. 
'T would n't hurt her to sit down an' hear 
his great stories once in a while." 

" The stories are very interesting," I ven- 
tured to say. 

" Yes, you always catch yourself a-thinkin' 
what if they was all true, and he had the 
right of it," answered Mrs. Todd. " He 's a 



170 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

good sight better company, though dreamy, 
than such sordid creatur's as Mari' Har- 
ris." 

"Live and let live," said dear old Mrs. 
Blackett gently. " I have n't seen the cap- 
tain for a good while, now that I ain't so 
constant to meetin'," she added wistfully. 
" We always have known each other." 

" Why, if it is a good pleasant day to- 
morrow, I '11 get William to call an' invite 
the capt'in to dinner. William '11 be in 
early so 's to pass up the street without 
meetin' anybody." 

" There, they 're callin' out it 's time to 
set the tables," said Mrs. Caplin, with great 
excitement. 

" Here 's Cousin Sarah tJane Blackett ! 
Well, I am pleased, certain ! " exclaimed 
Mrs. Todd, with unaffected delight ; and 
these kindred spirits met and parted with 
the promise of a good talk later on. After 
this there was no more time for conversa- 
tion until we were seated in order at the 
long tables. 

" I 'm one that always dreads seeing some 
o' the folks that I don't like, at such a time 
as this," announced Mrs. Todd privately to 
me after a season of reflection. We were 



THE BO WDEN RE UNION. 1 71 

just waiting for the feast to begin. " You 
would n't think such a great creatur' 's I 
be could feel all over pins an' needles. I 
remember, the day I promised to Nathan, 
how it come over me, just 's I was feelin' 
happy 's I could, that I 'd got to have an 
own cousin o' his for my near relation all 
the rest o' my life, an' it seemed as if die I 
should. Poor Nathan saw somethin' had 
crossed me, — he had very nice feelings, — 
and when he asked me what 't was, I told 
him. ' I never could like her myself,' said 
he. ' You sha'n't be bothered, dear,' he 
says ; an' 't was one o' the things that made 
me set a good deal by Nathan, he didn't 
make a habit of always opposin', like some 
men. * Yes,' says I, ' but think o' Thanks- 
givin' times an' funerals ; she 's our relation, 
an' we 've got to own her.' Young folks 
don't think o' those things. There she goes 
now, do let 's pray her by ! " said Mrs. Todd, 
with an alarming transition from general 
opinions to particular animosities. " I hate 
her just the same as 1 always did; but 
she 's got on a real pretty dress. I do try 
to remember that she 's Nathan's cousin. 
Oh dear, well ; she 's gone by after all, an' 
ain't seen me. I expected she 'd come 



172 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

pleasantin' round just to show off an' say 
afterwards she was acquainted." 

This was so different from Mrs. Todd's 
usual largeness of mind that I had a mo- 
ment's uneasiness ; but the cloud passed 
quickly over her spirit, and was gone with 
the offender. 

There never was a more generous out-of- 
door feast along the coast than the Bowden 
family set forth that day. To call it a pic- 
nic would make it seem trivial. The great 
tables were edged with pretty oak-leaf trim- 
ming, which the boys and girls made. We 
brought flowers from the fence-thickets of 
the great field ; and out of the disorder of 
flowers and provisions suddenly appeared 
as orderly a scheme for the feast as the mar- 
shal had shaped for the procession. I began 
to respect the Bowden s for their inheritance 
of good taste and skill and a certain pleasing 
gift of formality. Something made them do 
all these things in a finer way than most 
country people would have done them. As 
I looked up and down the tables there was 
a good cheer, a grave soberness that shone 
with pleasure, a humble dignity of bearing. 
There were some who should have sat below 



THE B WD EN RE UNION, 173 

the salt for lack of this good breeding ; but 
they were not many. So, I said to myself, 
their ancestors may have sat in the great 
hall of some old French house in the Middle 
Ages, when battles and sieges and proces- 
sions and feasts were familiar things. The 
ministers and Mrs. Blackett, with a few of 
their rank and age, were put in places of 
honor, and for once that I looked any other 
way I looked twice at Mrs. Blackett's face, 
serene and mindful of privilege and respon- 
sibility, the mistress by simple fitness of this 
great day. 

Mrs. Todd looked up at the roof of green 
trees, and then carefully surveyed the com- 
pany. " I see 'em better now they 're all 
settin' down," she said with satisfaction. 
" There 's old Mr. Gilbraith and his sister. 
I wish they were settin' with us ; they 're 
not among folks they can parley with, an' 
they look disappointed." 

As the feast went on, the spirits of my 
companion steadily rose. The excitement of 
an unexpectedly great occasion was a subtle 
stimulant to her disposition, and I could see 
that sometimes when Mrs. Todd had seemed 
limited and heavily domestic, she had simply 
grown sluggish for lack of proper surround- 



174 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

ino-s. Slie was not so much reminiscent 
now as expectant, and as alert and gay as a 
girl. We who were her neighbors were full 
of gayety, which was but the reflected light 
from her beaming countenance. It was not 
the first time that I was full of wonder at 
the waste of human ability in this world, 
as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness 
of nature, the thousand seeds that die, the 
unused provision of every sort. The reserve 
force of society grows more and more amaz- 
ing to one's thought. More than one face 
among the Bowdens showed that only op- 
portunity and stimulus were lacking, — a 
narrow set of circumstances had caged a fine 
able character and held it captive. One sees 
exactly the same types in a country gather- 
ing as in the most brilliant city company. 
You are safe to be understood if the spirit 
of your speech is the same for one neighbor 
as for the other. 



XIX. 

THE feast's end. 

The feast was a noble feast, as lias al- 
ready been said. There was an elegant in- 
genuity displayed in the form of pies which 
delighted my heart. Once acknowledge that 
an American pie is far to be preferred to its 
humble ancestor, the English tart, and it is 
joyful to be reassured at a Bowden reunion 
that invention has not yet failed. Beside 
a delightful variety of material, the decora- 
tions went beyond all my former experience ; 
dates and names were wrought in lines of 
pastry and frosting on the tops. There was 
even more elaborate reading matter on an 
excellent early-apple pie which we began to 
share and eat, precept upon precept. Mrs. 
Todd helped me generously to the whole 
word Bowden^ and consumed Beunion her- 
self, save an undecipherable fragment ; but 
the most renowned essay in cookery on the 
tables was a model of the old Bowden house 



176 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

made of durable gingerbread, with all the 
windows and doors in tlie right places, and 
sprigs of genuine lilac set at the front. It 
must have been baked in sections, in one of 
the last of the great brick ovens, and fas- 
tened together on the morning of the day. 
There was a general sigh when this fell into 
ruin at the feast's end, and it was shared 
by a great part of the assembly, not with- 
out seriousness, and as if ifc were a pledge 
and token of loyalty. I met the maker of 
the gingerbread house, which had called 
up lively remembrances of a childish story. 
She had the gleaming eye of an enthusiast 
and a look of high ideals. 

" I could just as well have made it all of 
frosted cake," she said, "but 't wouldn't 
have been the right shade ; the old house, as 
you observe, was never painted, and I con- 
cluded that plain gingerbread would repre- 
sent it best. It was n't all I expected it 
would be," she said sadly, as many an artist 
had said before her of his work. 

There were speeches by the ministers ; and 
there proved to be a historian among the 
Bowdens, who gave some fine anecdotes of 
the family history; and then appeared a 
poetess, whom Mrs. Todd regarded with 



THE FEASTS END. 17T 

wistful compassion and indulgence, and 
when the long faded garland of verses came 
to an appealing end, she turned to me with 
words of praise. 

" Sounded pretty," said the generous lis- 
tener. " Yes, I thought she did very well. 
We went to school together, an' Mary Anna 
had a very hard time ; trouble was, her 
mother thought she 'd given birth to a 
genius, an' Mary Anna 's come to believe it 
herself. There, I don't know what we should 
have done without her; there ain't nobody 
else that can write poetry between here and 
'way up towards Rockland ; it adds a great 
deal at such a time. When she speaks o' 
those that are gone, she feels it all, and so 
does everybody else, but she harps too much. 
I 'd laid half of that away for next time, if I 
was Mary Anna. There comes mother to 
speak to her, an' old Mr. Gilbraith's sister ; 
now she '11 be heartened right up. Mother '11 
say just the right thing." 

The leave - takings were as affecting as 
the meetings of these old friends had been. 
There were enough young persons at the 
reunion, but it is the old who really value 
such opportunities ; as for the young, it is 
the habit of every day to meet their comrades, 



178 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

— the time of separation has not come. To 
see the joy with which these elder kinsfolk 
and acquaintances had looked in one an- 
other's faces, and the lingering touch of their 
friendly hands ; to see these affectionate 
meetings and then the reluctant partings, 
gave one a new idea of the isolation in which 
it was possible to live in that after all thinly 
settled region. They did not expect to see 
one another again very soon ; the steady, 
hard work on the farms, the difficulty of 
getting from place to place, especially in 
winter when boats were laid up, gave double 
value to any occasion which could bring a 
large number of families together. Even 
funerals in this country of the pointed firs 
were not without their social advantages and 
satisfactions. I heard the words " next sum- 
mer " repeated many times, though summer 
was still ours and all the leaves were green. 
The boats began to put out from shore, 
and the wagons to drive away. Mrs. Black- 
ett took me into the old house when we came 
back from the grove : it was her father's 
birthplace and early home, and she had 
spent much of her own childhood there with 
her grandmother. She spoke of those days as 
if they had but lately passed ; in fact, I could 



THE FEASTS END, 179 

imagine that the house looked almost exactly 
the same to her. I could see the brown 
rafters of the unfinished roof as I looked up 
the steep staircase, though the best room 
was as handsome with its good wainscoting 
and touch of ornament on the cornice as any- 
old room of its day in a town. 

Some of the guests who came from a dis- 
tance were still sitting in the best room 
when we went in to take leave of the mas- 
ter and mistress of the house. We all said 
eagerly what a pleasant day it had been, and 
how swiftly the time had passed. Perhaps 
it is the great national anniversaries which 
our country has lately kept, and the soldiers' 
meetings that take place everywhere, which 
have made reunions of every sort the fashion. 
This one, at least, had been very interesting. 
I fancied that old feuds had been overlooked, 
and the old saying that blood is thicker than 
water had again proved itself true, though 
from the variety of names one argued a cer- 
tain adulteration of the Bowden traits and 
belongings. Clannishness is an instinct of 
the heart, — it is more than a birthright, or 
a custom ; and lesser rights were forgotten 
in the claim to a common inheritance. 

We were among the very last to return 



180 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

to our proper lives and lodgings. I came 
near to feeling like a true Bowden, and 
parted from certain new friends as if they 
were old friends; we were rich witli tlie 
treasure of a new remembrance. 

At last we were in the hioh wagfon ajrain : 
the old white horse had been well fed in the 
Bowden barn, and we drove away and soon 
began to climb the long hill toward the 
wooded ridge. The road was new to me, as 
roads always are, going back. Most of our 
companions had been full of anxious thoughts 
of home, — of the cows, or of young chil- 
dren likely to fall into disaster, — but we 
had no reasons for haste, and drove slowly 
along, talking and resting by the way. Mrs. 
Todd said once that she really hoped her 
front door had been shut on account of the 
dust blowing in, but added that nothing 
made any weight on her mind except not to 
forget to turn a few late mullein leaves that 
"were drying on a newspaper in the little 
loft. Mrs. Blackett and I gave our word 
of honor that we would remind her of this 
heavy responsibility. The way seemed 
short, we had so much to talk about. We 
climbed hills where we could see the great 
bay and the islands, and then went down 



THE FEASTS END. 181 

into shady valleys where the air began to 
feel like evening, cool and damp with a fra- 
grance of wet ferns. Mrs. Todd alighted 
once or twice, refusing all assistance in 
securing some boughs of a rare shrub which 
she valued for its bark, though she proved 
incommunicative as to her reasons. We 
passed the house where we had been so 
kindly entertained with doughnuts earlier in 
the day, and found it closed and deserted, 
which was a disappointment. 

"They must have stopped to tea some- 
wheres and thought they 'd finish up the 
day," said Mrs. Todd. " Those that enjoyed 
it best '11 want to get right home so's to 
think it over." 

" I did n't see the woman there after all, 
did you? " asked Mrs. Blackett as the horse 
stopped to drink at the trough. 

"Oh yes, I spoke with her," answered 
Mrs. Todd, with but scant interest or ap- 
proval. " She ain't a member o' our family." 

" I thought you said she resembled Cousin 
Pa'lina Bowden about the forehead," sug- 
gested Mrs. Blackett. 

" Well, she don't," answered Mrs. Todd 
impatiently. " I ain't one that 's ord'na- 
rily mistaken about family likenesses, and 



182 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

she did n't seem to meet witli friends, so I 
went square up to her. 'I expect you're 
a Bowden by your looks,' says I. ' Yes, I 
take it you 're one o' the Bowdens.' ' Lor', 
no,' says she. ' Dennett was my maiden 
name, but I married a Bowden for my first 
husband. I thought I 'd come an' just see 
what was a-goin' on' ! " 

Mrs. Blackett laughed heartily. " I 'm 
goin' to remember to tell William o' that," 
she said. " There, Almiry, the only thing 
that 's troubled me all this day is to think 
how William would have enjoyed it. I do 
so wish William had been there." 

" I sort of wish he had, myself," said 
Mrs. Todd frankly. 

" There wa'n't many old folks there, some- 
how," said Mrs. Blackett, with a touch of 
sadness in her voice. " There ain't so many 
to come as there used to be, I 'm aware, but 
I expected to see more." 

" I thought they turned out pretty well, 
when you come to think of it ; why, every- 
body was sayin' so an' feelin' gratified," 
answered Mrs. Todd hastily with pleasing 
unconsciousness ; then I saw the quick color 
flash into her cheek, and j^resently she made 
some excuse to turn and steal an anxious 



THE FEASTS END. 1S3 

look at her motlier. Mrs. Blackett was 
smiling and thinking about her liappy day, 
though she began to look a little tired. 
Neither of my companions was troubled by 
her burden of years. I hoped in my heart 
that I might be like them as I lived on 
into age, and then smiled to think that 
I too was no longer very young. So we 
always keep the same hearts, though our 
outer framework fails and shows the touch 
of time. 

" 'T was pretty when they sang the hymn, 
was n't it ? " asked Mrs. Blackett at supper- 
time, with real enthusiasm. "There was 
such a plenty o' men's voices ; where I sat it 
did sound beautiful. I had to stop and listen 
when they came to the last verse." 

I saw that Mrs. Todd's broad shoulders 
began to shake. " There was good singers 
there ; yes, there was excellent singers," she 
agreed heartily, putting down her teacup, 
" but I chanced to drift alongside Mis' Peter 
Bowden o' Great Bay, an' I could n't help 
thinkin' if she was as far out o' town as she 
was out o' tune, she would n't get back in a 
day." 



XX. 

ALONG SHORE. 

One day as I went along the shore beyond 
the old wharves and the newer, high-stepped 
fabric of the steamer landing, I saw that 
all the boats were beached, and the slack 
water period of the early afternoon pre- 
vailed. Nothing was going on, not even 
the most leisurely of occupations, like bait- 
ing trawls or mending nets, or repairing 
lobster pots; the very boats seemed to be 
taking an afternoon nap in the sun. I 
could hardly discover a distant sail as I 
looked seaward, except a weather-beaten 
lobster smack, which seemed to have been 
taken for a plaything by the light airs that 
blew about the bay. It drifted and turned 
about so aimlessly in the wide reach off 
Burnt Island, that I suspected there was 
nobody at the wheel, or that she might have 
parted her rusty anchor chain while all the 
crew were asleep. 



ALONG SHORE. 185 

I watched her for a minute or two ; she 
was the old Miranda, owned by some of the 
Caplins, and I knew her by an odd shaped 
patch of newish duck that was set into the 
peak of her dingy mainsail. Her vagaries 
offered such an exciting subject for conver- 
sation that my heart rejoiced at the sound 
of a hoarse voice behind me. At that mo- 
ment, before I had time to answer, I saw 
something large and shapeless flung from 
the Miranda's deck that splashed the water 
high against her black side, and my com- 
panion gave a satisfied chuckle. The old 
lobster smack's sail caught the breeze again 
at this moment, and she moved off down 
the bay. Turning, I found old Elijah Til- 
ley, who had come softly out of his dark 
fish house, as if it were a burrow. 

" Boy got kind o' drowsy steerin' of her ; 
Monroe he hove him right overboard ; 'wake 
now fast enough," explained Mr. Tilley, and 
we laughed together. 

I was delighted, for my part, that the vicis- 
situdes and dangers of the Miranda, in a 
rocky channel, should have given me this 
opportunity to make acquaintance with an 
old fisherman to whom I had never spoken. 
At first he had seemed to be one of those 



186 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

evasive and uncomfortable persons who are 
so suspicious of you that they make you 
almost susjoicious of yourself. Mr. Elijah 
Tilley appeared to regard a stranger with 
scornful indifference. You might see him 
standing on the pebble beach or in a fish- 
house doorway, but when jou. came nearer 
he was gone. He was one of the small com- 
pany of elderly, gaunt-shaped great fisher- 
men whom I used to like to see leading up 
a deep-laden boat by the head, as if it were 
a horse, from the water's edge to the steep 
slope of the pebble beach. There were four 
of these large old men at the Landing, who 
were the survivors of an earlier and more 
vigorous generation. There was an alliance 
and understanding between them, so close 
that it was apparently speechless. They 
gave much time to watching one another's 
boats go out or come in ; they lent a ready 
hand at tending one another's lobster traps 
in rough weather ; they helped to clean the 
fish, or to sliver porgies for the trawls, as if 
they were in close partnership ; and when a 
boat came in from deep-sea fishing they were 
never far out of the way, and hastened to 
help carry it ashore, two by two, sj^lasbing 
alongside, or holding its steady head, as if 



ALONG SHORE. 187 

it were a wilHul sea colt. As a matter of 
fact no boat could help being steady and 
way-wise under their instant direction and 
companionship. Abel's boat and Jonathan 
Bowden's boat were as distinct and experi- 
enced personalities as the men themselves, 
and as inexpressive. Arguments and opinions 
were unknown to the conversation of these 
ancient friends; you would as soon have 
expected to hear small talk in a company of 
elephants as to hear old Mr. Bowden or Eli- 
jah Tilley and their two mates waste breath 
upon any form of trivial gossip. They made 
brief statements to one another from time 
to time. As you came to know them you 
wondered more and more that they should 
talk at all. Speech seemed to be a light 
and elegant accomplishment, and their unex- 
pected acquaintance with its arts made them 
of new value to the listener. You felt 
almost as if a landmark pine should sud- 
denly address you in regard to the weather, 
or a lofty-minded old camel make a remark 
as you stood respectfully near him under the 
circus tent. 

I often wondered a great deal about the 
inner life and thought of these self-contained 
old fishermen ; their minds seemed to be 



188 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

fixed upon nature and the elements rather 
than upon any contrivances of man, like 
politics or theology. My friend, Captain 
Bowden, who was the nephew of the eldest 
of this group, regarded them with deference ; 
but he did not belong to their secret com- 
panionship, though he was neither young nor 
talkative. 

" They 've gone together ever since they 
were boys, they know most everything about 
the sea amon'st them," he told me once. 
" They was always just as you see 'em now 
since the memory of man." 

These ancient seafarers had houses and 
lands not outwardly different from other 
Dunnet Landing dwellings, and two of them 
were fathers of families, but their true 
dwelling places were the sea, and the stony 
beach that edged its familiar shore, and the 
fishhouses, where much salt brine from the 
mackerel kits had soaked the very timbers 
into a state of brown permanence and petri- 
faction. It had also affected the old fisher- 
men's hard complexions, until one fancied 
that when Death claimed them it could only 
be with the aid, not of any slender modern 
dart, but the good serviceable harpoon of a 
seventeenth century woodcut. 



ALONG SHORE, 189 

Elijah Tilley was sucli an evasive, dis- 
couraged-looking person, heavy-headed, and 
stooping so that one could never look him in 
the face, that even after his friendly excla- 
mation about Monroe Pennell, the lobster 
smack's skipper, and the sleepy boy, I did 
not venture at once to speak again. Mr. 
Tilley was carrying a small haddock in one 
hand, and presently shifted it to the other 
hand lest it might touch my skirt. I knew 
that my company was accepted, and we 
walked together a little way. 

"You mean to have a good supper," I 
ventured to say, by way of friendliness. 

" Goin' to have this 'ere haddock an' some 
o' my good baked potatoes ; must eat to 
live," responded my companion with great 
pleasantness and open approval. I found 
that I had suddenly left the forbidding coast 
and come into a smooth little harbor of 
friendship. 

" You ain't never been up to my place," 
said the old man. " Folks don't come now 
as they used to; no, 't ain't no use to ask 
folks now. My poor dear she was a great 
hand to draw young company." 

I remembered that Mrs. Todd had once 
said that this old fisherman had been -sore 



190 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

stricken and unconsoled at the death of his 
wife. 

" I should like very much to come," said 
I. " Perhaps you are going to be at home 
later on ? " 

Mr. Tilley agreed, by a sober nod, and 
went his way bent -shouldered and with a 
rolling gait. There was a new patch high 
on the shoulder of his old waistcoat, which 
corresponded to the renewing of the Mi- 
randa's mainsail down the bay, and I won- 
dered if his own fingers, clumsy with much 
deep-sea fishing, had set it in. 

" Was there a good catch to-day ? " I 
asked, stopping a moment. " I did n't hap- 
pen to be on the shore when the boats came 
in." 

" No ; all come in pretty light," answered 
Mr. Tilley. "Addicks an' Bowden they 
done the best ; Abel an' me we had but a 
slim fare. We went out 'arly, but not so 
'arly as sometimes ; looked like a poor 
mornin'. I got nine haddick, all small, and 
seven fish ; the rest on 'em got more fish 
than haddick. Well, I don't expect they 
feel like bitin' every day; we I'arn to 
humor 'em a little, an' let 'em have their 
way 'bout it. These plaguey dog-fish kind 



ALONG SHORE. 191 

o£ worry 'em." Mr. Tilley pronounced the 
last sentence with much sympathy, as if he 
looked upon himself as a true friend of all 
the haddock and codfish that lived on the 
fishing grounds, and so we parted. 

Later in the afternoon I went along the 
beach again until I came to the foot of Mr. 
Tilley's land, and found his rough track 
across the cobble-stones and rocks to the 
field edge, where there was a heavy piece of 
old wreck timber, like a ship's bone, full of 
treenails. From this a little footpath, nar- 
row with one man's treading, led up across 
the small green field that made Mr. Tilley's 
whole estate, except a straggling pasture 
that tilted on edge up the steep hillside 
beyond the house and road. I could hear 
the tinkle-tankle of a cow-bell somewhere 
among the spruces by which the pasture was 
being walked over and forested from every 
side ; it was likely to be called the wood lot 
before long, but the field was unmolested. 
I could not see a bush or a brier anywhere 
within its walls, and hardly a stray pebble 
showed itself. This was most surprising in 
that country of firm ledges, and scattered 
stones which all the walls that industry 



192 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIRS. 

could devise had hardly begun to clear away 
off the land. In the narrow field 1 noticed 
some stout stakes, apparently planted at 
random in the grass and among the hills of 
potatoes, but carefully painted yellow and 
white to match the house, a neat sharp- 
edged little dwelling, which looked strangely 
modern for its owner. I should have much 
sooner believed that the smart young whole- 
sale egg merchant of the Landing was its 
occupant than Mr. Tilley, since a man's 
house is really but his larger body, and ex- 
presses in a way his nature and character. 

I went up the field, following the smooth 
little path to the side door. As for using 
the front door, that was a matter of great 
ceremony ; the long grass grew close against 
the high stone step, and a snowberry bush 
leaned over it, top-heavy with the weight of 
a morning-glory vine that had managed to 
take what the fishermen might call a half 
hitch about the door-knob. Elijah Tilley 
came to the side door to receive me ; he was 
knitting a blue yarn stocking without look- 
ing on, and was warmly dressed for the sea- 
son in a thick blue flannel shirt with white 
crockery buttons, a faded waistcoat and 
trousers heavily patched at the knees. These 



ALONG SHORE. 193 

were not lils fishing clothes. There was 
something delightful in the grasp of his 
hand, warm and clean, as if it never touched 
anything but the comfortable woolen yarn, 
instead of cold sea water and slippery fish. 

" What are the painted stakes for, down 
in the field ? " I hastened to ask, and he came 
out a step or two along the path to see ; and 
looked at the stakes as if his attention were 
called to them for the first time. 

" Folks lauojhed at me when I first bouo:ht 
this place an' come here to live," he ex- 
plained. " They said 't wa'n't no kind of a 
field privilege at all ; no place to raise any- 
thing, all full o' stones. I was aware 't was 
good land, an' I worked some on it — odd 
times when I did n't have nothin' else on 
hand — till I cleared them loose stones all 
out. You never see a prettier piece than 
't is now ; now did ye ? Well, as for them 
painted marks, them 's my buoys. I struck 
on to some heavy rocks that did n't show 
none, but a plow 'd be liable to ground on 
'em, an' so I ketched holt an' buoyed 'em 
same 's you see. They don't trouble me no 
more 'n if they wa'n't there." 

" You have n't been to sea for nothing," 
I said laughing. 



194 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" One trade helps another," said Elijah 
with an amiable smile. " Come right in an' 
set down. Come in an' rest ye," he ex- 
claimed, and led the way into his comfort- 
able kitchen. The smishine poured in at 
the two further windows, and a cat was 
curled up sound asleep on the table that 
stood between them. There was a new-look- 
ing light oilcloth of a tiled pattern on the 
floor, and a crockery teapot, large for a 
household of only one person, stood on the 
bright stove. I ventured to say that some- 
body must be a very good housekeeper. 

" That 's me," acknowledged the old fisher- 
man with frankness. " There ain't nobody 
here but me. I try to keep things looking 
right, same 's poor dear left 'em. You set 
down here in this chair, then you can look 
off an' see the water. None on 'em thought 
I was goin' to get along alone, no way, but I 
wa'n't goin' to have my house turned upsi' 
down an' all changed about; no, not to 
please nobody. I was the only one knew 
just how she liked to have things set, poor 
dear, an' I said I was goin' to make shift, 
and I have made shift. I 'd rather tough it 
out alone." And he sighed heavily, as if to 
sigh were his familiar consolation. 



ALONG SHORE. 195 

We were both silent for a minute ; tlie old 
man looked out of the window, as if he had 
forgotten I was there. 

" You must miss her very much? " I said 
at last. 

" I do miss her," he answered, and sighed 
again. "Folks all kep' repeatin' that time 
would ease me, but I can't find it does. No, 
I miss her just the same every day." 

" How long is it since she died ? " I asked. 

" Eight year now, come the first of Octo- 
ber. It don't seem near so long. I 've got 
a sister that comes and stops 'long o' me a 
little spell, spring an' fall, an' odd times if I 
send after her. I ain't near so good a hand 
to sew as I be to knit, and she 's very 
quick to set everything to rights. She 's a 
married woman with a family ; her son's 
folks lives at home, an' I can't make no 
great claim on her time. But it makes me 
a kind' o good excuse, when I do send, to 
help her a little ; she ain't none too well off. 
Poor dear always liked her, and we used to 
contrive our ways together. 'T is full as easy 
to be alone. I set here an' think it all over, 
an' think considerable when the weather 's 
bad to go outside. I get so some days it 
feels as if poor dear might step right back 



196 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

into tills kitchen. I keep a watcliin' them 
doors as if she might step in to ary one. 
Yes, ma'am, I keep a-lookin' off an' drop- 
pin' o' my stitches ; that 's just how it seems. 
I can't git over losin' of her no way nor no 
how. Yes, ma'am, that 's just how it seems 
to me." 

I did not say anything, and he did not 
look up. 

" I git feelin' so sometimes I have to lay 
everything by an' go out door. She was a 
sweet pretty creatur' long 's she lived," the 
old man added mournfully. *' There 's that 
little rockin' chair o' her'n, I set an' notice 
it an' think how strange 't is a creatur' like 
her should be gone an' that chair be here 
right in its old place." 

" I wish I had known her ; Mrs. Todd 
told me about your wife one day," I said. 

" You 'd have liked to come and see her ; 
all the folks did," said poor Elijah. " She 'd 
been so pleased to hear everything and see 
somebody new that took such an int'rest. 
She had a kind o' gift to make it pleasant 
for folks. I guess likely Almiry Todd told 
you she was a pretty woman, especially in 
her young days ; late j^ears, too, she kep' 
her looks and come to be so pleasant look- 



ALONG SHORE. 1^7 

in'." There, 't ain't so mucli matter, I shall 
be done afore a great while. No ; I sha'n't 
trouble the fish a great sight more." 

The old widower sat with his head bowed 
over his knitting, as if he were hastily 
shortening the very thread of time. The 
minutes went slowly by. He stopped his 
work and clasped his hands firmly together. 
I saw he had forgotten his guest, and I kept 
the afternoon watch with him. At last he 
looked up as if but a moment had passed 
of his continual loneliness. 

"Yes, ma'am, I'm one that has seen 
trouble," he said, and began to knit again. 

The visible tribute of his careful house- 
keeping, and the clean bright room which 
had once enshrined his wife, and now en- 
shrined her memory, was very moving to 
me ; he had no thought for any one else or 
for anv other place. I began to see her my- 
self in her home, — a delicate-looking, faded 
little woman, who leaned upon his rough 
strength and affectionate heart, who was 
always watching for his boat out of this very 
window, and who always opened the door 
and welcomed him when he came home. 

» I used to laugh at her, poor dear," said 
Elijah, as if he read my thought. " I used to 



198 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

make light of her timid notions. She used 
to be fearful when I was out in bad weather 
or baffled about gittin' ashore. She used to 
say the time seemed long to her, but I 've 
found out all about it now. I used to be 
dreadful thoughtless when I was a young 
man and the fish was bitin' well. I 'd stay 
out late some o' them days, an' I expect 
she 'd watch an' watch an' lose heart a-waitin'. 
My heart alive ! what a supper she 'd git, 
an' be right there watchin' from the door, 
with somethin' over her head if 't was cold, 
waitin' to hear all about it as I come up the 
field. Lord, how I think o' all them little 
things ! " 

" This was what she called the best room ; 
in this way," he said presently, laying his 
knitting on the table, aud leading the way 
across the front entry and unlocking a door, 
which he threw open with an air of pride. 
The best room seemed to me a much sadder 
and more empty place than the kitchen ; its 
conventionalities lacked the simple perfec- 
tion of the humbler room and failed on the 
side of poor ambition ; it was only when 
one remembered what patient saving, and 
what high respect for society in the abstract 
go to such furnishing that the little parlor 



ALONG SHORE. 199 

was interesting at all. I could imagine tlie 
great day of certain purchases, the bewilder- 
ing shoi3s of the next large town, the aspiring 
anxious woman, the clumsy sea-tanned man 
in his best clothes, so eager to be pleased, 
but at ease only when they were safe back 
in the sail-boat again, going down the bay 
with their precious freight, the hoarded 
money all spent and nothing to think of but 
tiller and sail. I looked at the unworn car- 
pet, the glass vases on the mantelpiece with 
their prim bunches of bleached swamp grass 
and dusty marsh rosemary, and I could read 
the history of Mrs. Tilley's best room from 
its very beginning. 

" You see for yourself what beautiful rugs 
she could make ; now I 'm going to show 
you her best tea things she thought so much 
of," said the master of the house, opening 
the door of a shallow cupboard. " That 's 
real chiny, all of it on those two shelves," 
he told me proudly. " I bought it all my- 
self, when we was first married, in the port 
of Bordeaux. There never was one single 
piece of it broke until — Well, I used to 
say, long as she lived, there never was a 
piece broke, but long at the last I noticed 
she 'd look kind o' distressed, an' I thought 



200 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

't was 'count o' me boastin'. When they 
asked if they should use it when the folks 
was here to supper, time o' her funeral, I 
knew she 'd want to have everything nice, 
and I said ' certain.' Some o' the women 
they come runnin' to me an' called me, 
while they was takin' of the chiny down, 
an* showed me there was one o' the cups 
broke an' the pieces wropped in paper and 
pushed way back here, corner o' the shelf. 
They did n't want me to go an' think they 
done it. Poor dear ! I had to put right 
out o" the house when I see that. I knowed 
in one minute how 't was. We 'd got so 
used to sayin' 't was all there just 's I 
fetched it home, an' so when she broke that 
cup somehow or 'nother she could n't frame 
no words to come an' tell me. She could n't 
think 't would vex me, 't was her own hurt 
pride. I guess there wa'n't no other secret 
ever lay between us." 

The French cups with their gay sprigs of 
pink and blue, the best tumblers, an old 
flowered bowl and tea cadd^^, and a jaj)anned 
waiter or two adorned the shelves. These, 
with a few daguerreotypes in a little square 
pile, had the closet to themselves, and I was 
conscious of much pleasure in seeing them. 



ALONG SHORE. 201 

One is shown over many a house in these 
days where the interest may be more com- 
plex, but not more definite. 

'' Those were her best things, poor dear," 
said Elijah as he locked the door again. 
" She told me that last summer before she 
was taken away that she could n't think 
o' anything more she wanted, there was 
everything in the house, an' all her rooms 
was furnished pretty. I was goin' over to 
the Port, an' inquired for errands. I used 
to ask her to say what she wanted, cost or 
no cost — she was a very reasonable woman, 
an' 't was the place where she done all but 
her extra shopping. It kind o' chilled me 
up when she spoke so satisfied." 

"You don't go out fishing after Christ- 
mas ? " I asked, as we came back to the 
bright kitchen. 

" No ; I take stiddy to my knitting after 
January sets in," said the old seafarer. 
" 'T ain't worth while, fish make off into 
deeper water an' you can't stand no such 
perishin' for the sake o' what you get. I 
leave out a few traps in sheltered coves an' 
do a little lobsterin' on fair days. The young 
fellows braves it out, some on 'em ; but, for 
me, I lay in my winter's yarn an' set here 



202 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

where 't is warm, an' knit an' take my com- 
fort. Mother learnt me once when I was 
a lad; she was a beautiful knitter herself. 
I was laid up with a bad knee, an' she said 
't would take up my time an' help her ; we 
was a large family. They'll buy all the 
folks can do down here to Addicks' store. 
They say our Dunnet stockin's is gettin' to 
be celebrated up to Boston, — good quality 
o' wool an' even knittin' or somethin'. I 've 
always been called a pretty hand to do 
nettin', but seines is master cheap to what 
they used to be when they was all hand 
worked. I change off to nettin' long to- 
wards spring, and I piece up my trawls and 
lines and get my iSshin' stuff to rights. 
Lobster pots they require attention, but I 
make 'em up in spring weather when it 's 
warm there in the barn. No ; I ain't one o' 
them that likes to set an' do nothin'." 

" You see the rugs, poor dear did them ; 
she wa'n't very partial to knittin'," old Elijah 
went on, after he had counted his stitches. 
" Our rugs is beginnin' to show wear, but 
I can't master none o' them womanish tricks. 
My sister, she tinkers 'em up. She said last 
time she was here that she guessed they 'd 
last my time." 



ALONG SHORE. 203 

" The old ones are always the prettiest," 
I said. 

"You ain't referrin' to the braided ones 
now ? " answered Mr. Tilley. " You see 
ours is braided for the most part, an' their 
good looks is all in the beginnin'. Poor 
dear used to say they made an easier floor. 
I go shufflin' round the house same 's if 
't was a bo't, and I always used to be stub- 
bin' up the corners o' the hooked kind. 
Her an' me was always havin' our jokes 
together same 's a boy an' girl. Outsiders 
never 'd know nothin' about it to see us. 
She had nice manners with all, but to me 
there was nobody so entertainin'. She'd 
take off anybody's natural talk winter even- 
in's when we set here alone, so you 'd think 
't was them a-speakin'. There, there ! " 

I saw that he had dropped a stitch again, 
and was snarling the blue yarn round his 
clumsy fingers. He handled it and threw 
it off at arm's length as if it were a cod line ; 
and frowned impatiently, but I saw a tear 
shining on his cheek. 

I said that I must be going, it was grow- 
ing late, and asked if I might come again, 
and if he would take me out to the fishing 
grounds some day. 



204 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

" Yes, come any time you want to," said 
my host, " 't ain't so pleasant as when poor 
dear was here. Oh, I did n't want to lose 
her an' she did n't want to go, but it had to 
be. Such things ain't for us to say ; there 's 
no yes an' no to it." 

" You find Almiry Todd one o' the best 
o' women?" said Mr. Tilley as we parted. 
He was standing in the doorway and I had 
started off down the narrow green field. 
" No, there ain't a better hearted woman in 
the State o' Maine. I 've known her from 
a girl. She 's had the best o' mothers. 
You tell her I 'm liable to fetch her up a 
couple or three nice good mackerel early to- 
morrow," he said. " Now don't let it slip 
your mind. Poor dear, she always thought 
a sight o' Almiry, and she used to remind 
me there was nobody to fish for her ; but I 
don't rec'lect it as I ought to. I see you 
drop a line yourself very handy now an' 
then." 

We laughed together like the best of 
friends, and I spoke again about the fishing 
grounds, and confessed that I had no fancy 
for a southerly breeze and a ground swell. 

" Nor me neither," said the old fisherman. 
"Nobody likes 'em, say what they may. 



ALONG SHORE. 205 

Poor dear was disobliged by the mere sight 
of a bo't. Almiry 's got the best o' mothers, 
I expect you know; Mis' Blackett out to 
Green Island ; and we was always plannin' 
to go out when summer come ; but there, I 
could n't pick no day's weather that seemed 
to suit her just right. I never set out to 
worry her neither, 't wa'n't no kind o' use ; she 
was so pleasant we could n't have no fret 
nor trouble. 'T was never * you dear an' 
you darlin' ' afore folks, an' ' you divil ' be- 
hind the door ! " 

As I looked back from the lower end of 
the field I saw him still standing, a lonely 
figure in the doorway. *' Poor dear," I 
repeated to myself half aloud ; " I wonder 
where she is and what she knows of the 
little world she left. I wonder what she has 
been doing these eight years ! " 

I gave the message about the mackerel to 
Mrs. Todd. 

" Been visitin' with 'Lijah ? " she asked 
with interest. " I expect you had kind of 
a dull session ; he ain't the talkin' kind ; 
dwellin' so much long o' fish seems to make 
'em lose the gift o' speech." But when I 
told her that Mr. Tilley had been talking to 
me that day, she interrupted me quickly. 



206 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

"Then 't was all about his wife, an' he 
can't say nothin' too pleasant neither. She 
was modest with strangers, but there ain't 
one o' her old friends can ever make up her 
loss. For me, I don't want to go there no 
more. There 's some folks you miss and 
some folks you don't, when they 're gone, but 
there ain't hardly a day I don't think o' dear 
Sarah Tilley. She was always right there ; 
yes, you knew just where to find her like a 
plain flower. 'Lijah 's worthy enough ; I do 
esteem 'Lijah, but he 's a ploddin' man." 



XXI. 

THE BACKWARD VIEW. 

At last it was the time of late summer, 
when the house was cool and damp in the 
morning, and all the light seemed to come 
through green leaves ; but at the first step 
out of doors the sunshine always laid a warm 
hand on my shoulder, and the clear, high 
sky seemed to lift quickly as I looked at it. 
There was no autumnal mist on the coast, 
nor any August fog ; instead of these, the 
sea, the sky, all the long shore line and the 
inland hills, with every bush of bay and 
every fir-top, gained a deeper color and a 
sharper clearness. There was something 
shining in the air, and a kind of lustre on 
the water and the pasture grass, — a north- 
ern look that, except at this moment of the 
year, one must go far to seek. The sun- 
shine of a northern summer was coming to 
its lovely end. 

The days were few then at Dunnet Land- 



208 COUNTRY OF TEE POINTED FIRS. 

ing, and I let eacli of them slip away un- 
willingly as a miser spends his coins. I 
wished to have one of my first weeks back 
again, with those long hours when nothing 
happened except the growth of herbs and 
the course of the sun. Once I had not even 
known where to go for a walk ; now there 
were many delightful things to be done and 
done again, as if I were in London. I felt 
hurried and full of pleasant engagements, 
and the days flew by like a handful of flowers 
flung to the sea wind. 

At last I had to say good-by to all my 
Dunnet Landing friends, and my homelike 
place in the little house, and return to the 
world in which I feared to find myself a 
foreigner. There may be restrictions to such 
a summer's happiness, but the ease that be- 
longs to simplicity is charming enough to 
make up for whatever a simple life may 
lack, and the gifts of peace are not for those 
who live in the thick of battle. 

I was to take the small unpunctual steamer 
that went down the bay in the afternoon, and 
I sat for a while by my window looking out 
on the green herb garden, with regret for 
company. Mrs. Todd had hardly spoken 



THE BACKWARD VIEW. 209 

all day except in the briefest and most dis- 
approving way ; it was as if we were on the 
edge of a quarrel. It seemed impossible to 
take my departure with anything like com- 
posure. At last I heard a footstep, and 
looked up to find that Mrs. Todd was stand- 
ing at the door. 

"I've seen to everything now," she told 
me in an unusually loud and business-like 
voice. "Your trunks are on the w'arf by 
this time. Cap'n Bowden he come and took 
'em down himself, an' is going to see that 
they 're safe aboard. Yes, I 've seen to all 
your 'rangements," she repeated in a gentler 
tone. " These things I 've left on the kitchen 
table you '11 want to carry by hand ; the 
basket need n't be returned. I guess I shall 
walk over towards the Port now an' inquire 
how old Mis' Edward Caplin is." 

I glanced at my friend's face, and saw a 
look that touched me to the heart. I had 
been sorry enough before to go away. 

" I guess you '11 excuse me if I ain't down 
there to stand round on the w'arf and see 
you go," she said, still trying to be gruff. 
" Yes, I ought to go over and inquire for 
Mis' Edward Caplin ; it 's her third shock, 
and if mother gets in on Sunday she 'U want 



210 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, 

to know just how the old lady is." With this 
last word Mrs. Todd turned and left me as 
if with sudden thought of something she had 
forgotten, so that I felt sure she was coming 
back, but presently I heard her go out of 
the kitchen door and walk down the path 
toward the gate. I could not part so ; I 
ran after her to say good-by, but she shook 
her head and waved her hand without look- 
ing back when she heard my hurrying steps, 
and so went away down the street. 

When I went in again the little house had 
suddenly grown lonely, and my room looked 
empty as it had the day I came. I and all 
my belongings had died out of it, and I 
knew how it would seem when Mrs. Todd 
came back and found her lodger gone. So 
we die before our own eyes ; so we see some 
chapters of our lives come to their natural 
end. 

I found the little packages on the kitchen 
table. There was a quaint West Indian 
basket which I knew its owner had valued, 
and which I had once admired ; there was 
an affecting provision laid beside it for my 
seafaring supper, with a neatly tied bunch 
of southernwood and a twig of bay, and a 
little old leather box which held the coral 



THE BACKWARD VIEW. 211 

pin that Nathan Todd brought home to give 
to poor Joanna. 

There was still an hour to wait, and I 
went up to the hill just above the school- 
house and sat there thinking of things, and 
looking off to sea, and watching for the boat 
to come in sight. I could see Green Island, 
small and darkly wooded at that distance ; 
below me were the houses of the village with 
their apple-trees and bits of garden ground. 
Presently, as I looked at the pastures beyond, 
I caught a last glimpse of Mrs. Todd her- 
self, walking slowly in the footpath that led 
along, following the shore toward the Port. 
At such a distance one can feel the large, 
positive qualities that control a character. 
Close at hand, Mrs. Todd seemed able and 
warm-hearted and quite absorbed in her 
bustling industries, but her distant figure 
looked mateless and appealing, with some- 
thing about it that was strangely self-pos- 
sessed and mysterious. Now and then she 
stooped to pick something, — it might have 
been her favorite pennyroyal, — and at last 
I lost sight of her as she slowly crossed an 
open space on one of the higher points of 
land, and disappeared again behind a dark 
clump of juniper and the pointed firs. 



212 COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 

As I came away on the little coastwise 
steamer, there was an old sea running which 
made the surf leap high on all the rocky 
shores. I stood on deck, looking back, and 
watched the busy gulls agree and turn, and 
sway together down the long slopes of air, 
then separate hastily and plunge into the 
waves. The tide was setting in, and plenty 
of small fish were coming with it, unconscious 
of the silver flashing of the great birds over- 
head and the quickness of their fierce beaks. 
The sea was full of life and spirit, the tops of 
the waves flew back as if they were winged 
like the gulls themselves, and like them had 
the freedom of the wind. Out in the main 
channel we passed a bent-shouldered old fish- 
erman bound for the evening round among 
his lobster traps. He was toiling along with 
short oars, and the dory tossed and sank and 
tossed again with the steamer's waves. I 
saw that it was old Elijah Tilley, and though 
we had so long been strangers we had come 
to be warm friends, and I wished that 
he had waited for one of his mates, it was 
such hard work to row along shore through 
rough seas and tend the traps alone. As we 
passed I waved my hand and tried to call 
to him, and he looked up and answered my 



THE BACK WAED VIEW. 213 

farewells by a solemn nod. The little town, 
witli the tall masts of its disabled schooners 
in the inner bay, stood high above the flat 
sea for a few minutes, then it sank back into 
the uniformity of the coast, and became in- 
distinguishable from the other towns that 
looked as if they were crumbled on the f urzy- 
green stoniness of the shore. 

The small outer islands of the bay were 
covered among the ledges with turf that 
looked as fresh as the early grass ; there had 
been some days of rain the week before, and 
the darker green of the sweet-fern was scat- 
tered on all the pasture heights. It looked 
like the beginning of summer ashore, though 
the sheep, round and warm in their winter 
wool, betrayed the season of the year as 
they went feeding along the slopes in the 
low afternoon sunshine. Presently the wind 
began to blow, and we struck out seaward to 
double the long sheltering headland of the 
cape, and when I looked back again, the 
islands and the headland had run together 
and Dunnet Landing and all its coasts were 
lost to sight. 



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